The Walk
by ParadoxicalAnomaly
Summary: Harry Potter has been entered into the Tri-Wizard Tournament against his will, forcing him to compete. No one believes him except a person here and there. What challenges await him this year and who is the blonde Slytherin girl who keeps cropping up in his life?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer-I do not own anything, not even the computer I'm writing this on. It's my friends since mine has been broken for quite some time.**

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Chapter 1

"Alright class, we got jus' enough Skrewts for the class ter work in pairs, so I'll be assignin yer partner who will work with yer for the next few weeks," Hagrid announced to the fourth year class when everyone had arrived.

Apparently, the Skrewts has taken to killing each other due to "cooped up energy," as Hagrid had phrased it. So they got the lovely task of trying to take a Skrewt for a walk. They were now over three feet long and were no longer shell-less. They had developed some sort of grayish armour, which made them look like a mixture of giant scorpions and crabs. Unfortunately for the class, the Skrewts had also grown quite strong and could now blast off more powerfully and further than ever. So naturally, trying to take them for a walk seemed like the perfectly logical thing to do.

"Jus' tie the leash round the middle and walk em around the field some."

"Yeah, because there's no way this could possibly end badly," Harry heard Ron whisper to Seamus and Dean, who began quietly laughing. Under normal circumstances, Harry too would have joined in on the joke, but the events of the past weekend had made that the last thing  
Harry wanted to do. Ever since the announcement of the Tri-Wizard Champions during the Halloween feast, Ron had been a complete and total git. The thought of their conversation that night still made Harry's blood boil. Not having time to talk to Hagrid since before the feast, Harry could only hope that Hagrid doesn't try to pair them together, thinking he was doing them a favor. Barely had that thought crossed his mind when he heard his name.

"And Neville, why don't yeh work with Dean. Hmm, we got an odd amount," Hagrid observed, scratching at a spot in his enormous beard. "Guess there'll be a group-o-three today. Harry, why don't yeh work with Ron and Hermi…"

"I am not working with him!" Ron protested vocally, making sure to put an extra emphasis on the not.

Harry glanced around to see the reactions. Face turning red, Ron had a look of anger on his face. Standing next to him, Hermione looked completely torn while Neville just gave Harry a look saying "It's his problem, not yours." Harry quickly glanced around at his classmates, many of whom were showing signs of surprise at Ron's outburst, several of them not knowing the falling out that had happened just nights ago. Hagrid, however, put them all to shame. The look of shock he shot at Harry rivaled the one Harry had given the man when he had learned the truth on his 11th birthday. Opening his mouth to voice his utter confusion on the matter, Harry gave him a quick, but brief, shake of the head.

"Ron, yer can work with Hermione," Hagrid said, changing tactics at top speed. "Harry, why don't yeh come over an' help me with this big one?"

Hagrid, of course, had waited until everyone had set off with their Skrewt. Once his classmates were so preoccupied with attempting to take the Skrewts for a walk, or rather the Skrewts taking his classmates for a drag, Hagrid took the chance to voice what was on his mind.

"What the ruddy hell was that about?" he asked, not even trying to mask the tone of surprised laced in the question.

"It's kind of a long story," Harry let out a long sigh, looking a bit dejected. "Short version is that Ron is an enormous prat. He seems to think that I put my own name into the Goblet of Fire and that I'm lying when I say that I have no clue how it happened. You believe me Hagrid, right?"

"What?" Hagrid asked loudly. "How could he think that? And of course I believe yeh, an' Dumbledore believes yer. What does Hermione say about it?"

"She believes me, but I can tell she is torn between me and Ron. She doesn't want to take sides and I feel bad for putting her in that situation."

"So yer definitely competing then?" Hagrid grunted the question; completely ignoring the Skrewt that Harry was supposed to be helping with, which was now trying to escape its crate.

"Don't have much of a choice honestly. Apparently the Goblet is a binding magical contract," Harry explained to the Magical Creatures Teacher.

Hagrid opened his mouth to respond when a figure approached them, a slight look of worry on her face after seeing what the class was attempting.

"Sorry I'm late Professor," she said, brushing a strand of dirty blonde hair out of her face as she handed Hagrid a slip of parchment. "Professor Flitwick wanted to talk to me about one of my Charms assignments."

"That's alright Miss Greengrass, were jus' taking the Skrewts fer a walk. Why don't yeh work with Harry on this big one?" Hagrid explained after a quick once over of the note and walking away to assist Seamus, who was currently being dragged along like a rag-doll as a Skrewt blasted off and yelling something that sounded along the lines of 'Skrewt this.'

"Take this thing for a walk?" the blonde girl said, somewhat slowly, as though the idea was registering somewhat slowly.

"Yeah, suppose it could be worse I reckon. At least were not still trying to feed them," he looked at her as discreetly as he could manage, taking in the shoulder length dirty blonde hair and the crystal blue eyes. Quite possibly the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Not that he would have ever admitted it.

"Point taken," she replied, rather nonchalantly. A few moments past of her giving him an emotionless stare before Harry's words found him.

"We've been in the same grade for three years and I don't think we've actually ever talked. I'm…"

"Potter," she replied simply, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Kind of hard not to know who the boy-who-lived is. Especially after having to share a common room with Malfoy for going on four years."

"Err, right. Suppose so," was all he could think of. He honestly didn't know what to say to the girl, she was a Slytherin after all. Not only did she probably not like him on principle, but there was that minor detail of him being forced into the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Of course, there was a good chance she wouldn't believe him about it. Her and the rest of the school. "No offense or anything, but you are..?" He let the question hang there, hoping she would answer so he didn't feel quite so stupid.

"I guess it makes sense you don't know who I am. Not very famous, am I? Not like you anyways." she answered coolly. "Daphne Greengrass."

"I would gladly trade places with you," Harry responded without even thinking.

"That's not what I hear, ya know," she said as she handed him the leash that was lying on the Skrewts crate.

Harry simply stared at her for a moment before moving his gaze to the rope leash she was holding out to him. Of course he should expect this kind of response.

"No way in hell am I about to try to tie a rope around that thing. You do it."

"You know, you shouldn't believe everything you hear." He took the leash she was offering him, his fingers grazing a part of her warm, slightly tan skin. She simply looked questioningly at him.

"I mean," he continued as he opened the crate and began making an attempt to rope him a Skrewt, which was nearly a foot longer than the others. "Everyone blamed me for that Chamber of Secrets crap that happened in second year and they were wrong weren't they? But no, guess that wasn't good enough for everyone. So obviously, when I say that I didn't enter this damned tournament, people aren't going to believe me. Oh no, Potter is just trying to boast his own fame and fortune again. He's such an attention seeking prat that Potter is. I wonder if it ever occurred to everyone that I don't want all this, that maybe I just want to be normal."

He hadn't even realized that he was ranting to a girl he had just meet about the emotions that had been bottled up and steadily building since the night of the Halloween Feast. He simply kept wrestling with the Skrewt and continued spilling out everything he had become so fed up with while the Slytherin girl just stood there, absorbing everything happening in front of her as her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.

"No I guess it never occurred to anyone at all. Especially for the Slytherins, what with all the crap Malfoy no doubt tells all his Slytherin buddies," he kept going, as he forcefully tied a large knot, securing the leash around the Skrewt. "So I'll say it again, you really shouldn't believe everything you…"

His words were cut short as the Skrewt had apparently decided what it desired most in this world, was to launch itself as quickly as possible in a random direction. And it had done just that. An enormous blast erupted from the Skrewt, as it propelled itself forward. Harry, who in his rant had forgotten just what he had been doing and had been holding the leash in his left hand, was jerked off his feet and forcefully pulled after the Skrewt, who was still rocketing away. Daphne, who was quite unsure what to say to Harry during his spiel, dropped her jaw in surprise and took on a mixed look of severe confusion and mild horror as her partner was being drug around while the Skrewt mindlessly went on a blasting rampage.

"Professor Hagrid, my partner just exploded," Daphne called after a moment to the teacher, who had just lifted Neville up by the back of his robes, saving him as his and Dean's Skrewt launched itself at the poor Gryffindor boy.

The half-giant turned quickly and saw Harry being thoroughly run through the grass and dirt. Acting quickly, Hagrid ran over and jerked Harry away from the rampaging Skrewt.

"Well, that was loads of fun," Harry sighed verbally, a slight sarcastic ring to his words. A few seconds passed before he noticed the extreme hot and stinging sensation he was beginning to feel across his left hand and forearm. "And now my arm's on fire."

Harry, as it turns out, had not quite paid attention when he was leashing the Skrewt, tying the rather hort rope around the blasting end of the beast, not the middle like Hagrid had instructed. So naturally when the Skrewt decided to go blasting off in an unknown direction, all the fire had been shot directly onto his arm.

"Looks like it got yeh with the blasting end. That can sometimes happen with this guy. Quite the powerhouse in't he? Miss. Greengrass, would yeh mind walking with Harry here up ter the Hospital Wing? Madam Pomfrey can get yeh some o that burn paste," Hagrid told the pair, after he examined Harry's red and blistering forearm.

The pair set off together, rather reluctantly, back towards the castle, an awkward silence settling itself comfortably between the two students.

"So…" Daphne broke the silence after several minutes of nothing but the sound of their classmates battling the Skrewts growing fainter with each step.

"So.." Harry added, somewhat lamely.

"How's the uh, the arm?" she asked, taking a stab at politeness. It wasn't exactly her strong point.

"Kinda burns," he replied simply. 'What am I supposed to say to this girl?' he thought as an aftermath.

"You know, something tells me tying the rope around the end that blasts off might not have been the brightest thing in world." Her sarcasm was not lost on Harry.

"Yeah well, I didn't see you jumping to help out or anything."

"And interrupt you during your melt down? I may not be in Ravenclaw, but I'm not that stupid," she replied, brushing some of her dirty blonde hair out of her face.

"Err, sorry about that. Didn't mean to freak out on you or anything," he gave a half grin, somewhat sheepishly. "You probably think I'm crazy or something now."

"Well, you definitely don't give the best first impression Potter," she said as the doors opened, leading them into the Entrance Hall. "I suppose it could have been worse though."

"I seriously doubt that."

"I don't know, the part where you blasted off was a nice touch."

"Gee, thanks," was really all he could say.

"What can I say? I'm a Slytherin and you're a Gryffindor,"

"You don't seem that bad for a Slytherin," Harry pointed out. "You're probably the most civil one I've talked to."

"Guess I'm doing a bad job then Potter."

"So how about it?" he asked simply.

"How about what?" She bit back.

"A second first impression."

"And what makes you think I want that Potter?"

Something about her rubbed him the wrong way. Or perhaps he as rubbing her the wrong way, which seemed plausible given the way the practically freaked out earlier.

"Sorry, forget I said anything." This girl really made it hard to be friendly with. Of course, that made him wonder just why he was trying to be nice to her in the first place. Sure she was one of the prettier girls in his year, but she was a Slytherin. They were supposed to hate each other on principle and, he thought suddenly, she probably is one of the many who hang out with Malfoy and believe that he entered himself into the tournament. That and about everything else that blonde git had said about him since first year. So this girl was supposed to be his enemy right…right?

"Well, here we are. Later Potter," she turned on the spot and began heading in the direction of the Entrance Hall.

Harry sighed heavily before throwing a punch at the stone wall. He gave a loud grunt, realizing a second late he had used his burnt hand. Re-positioning the bag slung over his back with his good arm, he turned to face the Hospital Wing doors.

"No one believes me about the tournament, I pretty much just confirmed to the Slytherins that I'm a nutter, and bloody hell does my arm hurt. This is going to be a long year," he said to himself while glancing at his throbbing left arm. He gave a second loud sigh, and with an afterthought, he added, "Madame Pomfrey is going to kill me."

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A/N: Well, there is the first chapter. To be honest, I never really thought I'd ever write anything with Harry/Daphne in it. This story came about a few ways. First off, a few friends of mine challenged me to write something I would usually not write about, out of my comfort zone so to speak. I was actually toying with another idea when I happened across a few Harry/Daphne fics that were simply incredibly written and they sort of inspired me to write my own.

I'm not 100% pleased with this first chapter, but considering how Daphne is mentioned on the books maybe all of 4 times, I'm still working on her character some.

Also, up until this point in Harry's 4th year is canon. Some events will stay canon, some will not. I do appreciate reviews, as I like to know what people think and it helps me grow as a writer. However, I do not like asking for reviews really, so feel free to review or not. It's really up to you. Also, feel free to ask any questions and I will answer them the best I can.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: This may come as a big shock to you all, but I don't own Harry Potter. At all. Gasp!**

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'All in all, this has to be the worst week in Hogwarts I've ever had,' Harry reflected, sitting in his favorite armchair in front of the roaring fire in the common room. 'Least my arm is normal again. Silver linings.'

Upon walking into the Hospital Wing on Monday, Madame Pomfrey put her hands on her hips and simply said "Again, Mr. Potter?" To which Harry responded with a slow, but sheepish, nod. At least she didn't threaten to keep him over night this time, lucky him. She just told him to make sure to come back a couple times a day for two or three days so she could apply burn healing paste to his hand and forearm. That or she would hunt him down and force him to accept the burn paste. He had learned over the years that trying to argue with Madame Pomfrey was about as useful a screen door on a Muggle submarine. If there was one thing he had learned from all his Hospital Wing visits, it was not to cross Madame Pomfrey. You would think it would be just don't get hurt, but not with Harry and the way he got injured without even trying.

Ron still wasn't talking to him, no surprise there. Malfoy was still being the prat he always was, again no surprise. Hermione, bless her, was caught between a rock and hard place. She truly did seem to believe him, but did not want to take sides between him and Ron. She tried to split the time she spent with them in half. She was currently with Ron working on the Herbology homework. Harry had, shockingly enough, already finished it. Though that was mainly due to the fact that he was currently with Neville and had gotten help from him with it. Along with Hermione, Neville was one of the very, very few people who believed that him when he said that he didn't enter his own name into the Goblet of Fire.

He thought back for a brief moment on when Daphne had left him at the Hospital Wing doors. His thoughts then had so far proven to be true. This was definitely going to be a long year. He did not even have Quidditch to take his mind off of things.

"Hey Nev, I think I'm gonna go down to the Quidditch Pitch for a quick fly, wanna come?" He asked, getting up out of the warm armchair.

"No, that's ok. I need to finish the Divination homework," he replied, somewhat gloomily.

"Just tell her that you predict I'll die a painful death. You'll get an O for sure."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Neville chuckled. "But it's fine, really. You know I'm rubbish at flying."

"Alright then, I'll catch you later," Harry said as he headed up to the dormitories to fetch his Firebolt.

Ten minutes later, Harry found himself on the deserted Quidditch Pitch. There was still an exceptional amount of sunlight left and he intended to take advantage of it. Excitedly, he mounted his beloved broom and kicked off with enthusiasm. Wind rushing past him, he suddenly remembered just how much he had missed flying and the sport. He raced around the pitch as quick as he could. Harry continued flying, diving and doing loops for nearly an hour until he flew high above the pitch and sat in the air. He simply sat on his Firebolt, gazing at the castle and across her grounds. After a minute, he turned his sights back on the pitch and began heading back to solid ground. That was when he noticed the lone figure sitting in the stands. He was about to turn and head the other way when he recognized the long, dirty blonde hair.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked the Slytherin when he was close enough, hovering a few feet above the girl.

"Finally noticed me eh?" she didn't even look up from the book she was reading. "Don't let me stop your fancy flying Mr. Showoff."

"Why are you out here?" he asked again, this time hopping off his Firebolt to stand next to her.

"Reading Potter," she replied as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Well I can see that."

"Then why did you ask?" She was clearly enjoying this. And she had still not looked up from her bloody book!

"You know what, nevermind," he turned and began to walk away, Firebolt on his shoulder, when he heard her speak again.

"How's the arm?"

"Why do you care?" Harry wondered aloud.

"I never said I did Potter." Merlin, did this girl get on his nerves.

"Why did you ask then?" Two can play at that game, Ha!

"Can't have my partner in Magical Creatures be too injured. I need him to handle our Skrewt so I won't have to."

"That's very Slytherin of you." He saw a slight grin appear over the top of her book, which she had still not taken her eyes off of. Talk about rudeness.

"Well, if you were any sort of Gryffindor, you would do the chivalrous thing and not make a woman have to deal with such a monster as a Blast-Ended Skrewt."

"Did that once, I ended up in the Hospital Wing."

"Maybe you should have listened and not tied the rope around the blasting end," she replied, as though she wanted nothing more than to relive the memory.

"Like I said then, you could have easily said something instead of letting me get burned." Why was he even bothering with this girl?

"And like I said, I wasn't about to interrupt you while you erupted like a volcano. Besides, that would have taken all the fun out of it."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked simply, already knowing the answer.

"Aren't you?" A rather devious smile manifested behind the book again.

"I don't even know why I'm bothering to talk to you," Harry said, more to himself than anything.

Daphne slowly, and finally, closed the book and sat it on the bench next to her. 'Intermediate Transfiguration,' he recognized. Looking up and locking her crystal blue eyes with his emerald green ones, she paused for a few moments.

"Because you're intrigued by me," she said after a few moments of staring at him.

"I don't think intrigued is the right word," he replied as he shifted the Firebolt on his shoulder.

"Oh it is. See, I'm the only one who hasn't said anything about you entering yourself into the tournament. You don't know what to make of me because I'm not going around with Malfoy's gang, trying to give you hell. Which, of course, must be confusing the mess out of you considering you are of the mindset that 'All Slytherin's are going to be Death Eaters.' Thanks to Weasley, no doubt."

"Are you saying that you believe me?" He asked cautiously. Truth be told, he didn't know what she was trying to get at.

"I didn't say that," She tilted her head at a slight angle.

"So you don't believe me?"

"I didn't say that either."

"So what was the point of the monologue?"

"You're one to talk about monologues Potter," her grin reappeared as she raised her right eyebrow. Standing up, she continued. "But the point was that you don't know what to think of me. I'm in your head now. And I'm going to be there for quite some time too, I reckon."

He just gaped at her, slightly dumbfounded. The nerve of her. In his head? Yeah, right. He readjusted his Firebolt again, slightly uncomfortably this time. She gave a slight laugh at his expression as she stood up, collecting her book in the process. She began retreating down the stands, her slim figure clearly visible in the setting sun. She was now almost twelve rows below him when he came to his senses.

"Wait, so now what?" he called after her.

"Figure it out for yourself Potter," she called back over her shoulder.

"You're not in my head!"

"Oh you keep telling yourself that," and with that, she was gone.

"Ok, what just happened?" Harry found himself asking that question more than once as he made his way back to Gryffindor Tower.

One thing he was sure of, however, was that Daphne Greengrass was certainly not in his head. Her and her stupid book. And her stupid logic, her stupid way of trying to get on his nerves, and her pretty, I mean stupid, blonde hair. And of course, those piercing blue eyes. The way they just bore into his. Wait..? What did she mean by all that stuff about the tournament and not all Slytherin's being Death Eaters and…oh damn it. Damn it so much.

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**A/N: I know this chapter is significantly shorter than the first one, but I really just starting writing and this is how it turned out. I actually like the way it turned out and didn't want to ruin it, or ruin it in my mind at least, by trying to make it longer. Hope you guys enjoyed it!**

**Also, wanted to thank everyone who read and/or Favorited/Followed/Reviewed the first chapter. I definitely did not except so many people to like it after only one chapter. So again, thanks to you guys. You Rock! I plan on updating within the next week at the latest, so stay tuned!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, I felt kind of bad that the last chapter was fairly short. So I worked diligently in order to post this chapter quickly for you guys . Hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: Definitely do not own anything Harry Potter**

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Barely a few days had passed since his encounter with Daphne in the Quidditch stands then did things really begin to go downhill. Not only had he not heard back from Sirius yet, but he had to attend the Wand Weighing Ceremony two days ago. It in itself was not bad, except for the fact about the forced interviews. Rita Skeeter was, Harry was not even sure what word he could use to describe her, bubutuber pus came to mind first. Things hadn't seemed too bad, until today. Skeeters article had come out this morning. While not covering the tournament so much as a piece about how Harry, who is apparently still twelve, still cries about his parents and is dating one of his best friends. Of course, Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins could not pass up this opportunity to give him more crap. And then there were those badges, those damn badges. Harry could not even walk to lunch without seeing the bright green words of 'Potter Stinks' shining at him every other minute.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had been just the Slytherins, he knew that was to be expected from them. Harry, if he were honest with himself, couldn't blame the Hufflepuffs. Cedric was by rights the true Hogwarts Champion. Seeing a majority of the Ravenclaws and even a Gryffindor here and there was what really got to him. Harry had, surprisingly, not seen Ron wearing a badge. They still weren't talking, but Ron didn't seem to have stooped low enough to begin wearing a 'Potter Stinks' badge yet. Things just seemed to be closing in around him, so he did the only thing he could think of.

Dear Padfoot,

I haven't gotten a reply yet so I thought I'd give you another update. Definitely the worst week of Hogwarts ever. I don't know if you have seen the Daily Prophet yet for today or not, but if not I'm including a copy. Should just about sum up everything. Also, those lovely Slytherins have decided to make badges in my honor. They say 'Support Cedric Diggory, the real Hogwarts Champion.' Wait, it gets better. If you press the badges, they say 'Potter Stinks.' Very classy, I know. I've only got Hermione and, oddly enough, Neville Longbottom to help me. Ron had decided that I entered myself in the tournament for more fame and that I'm a giant liar by going around telling people I didn't enter. I swear, everyone at this school has gone mental. Ron isn't talking to me and now I have some Slytherin girl who's being all…I don't even know what she is trying to do. But whatever it is, it is very confusing.

Anyway, hope you and Buckbeak are doing well and that I hear from you soon.

-Harry

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That was how Harry found himself leaning against one of the Owlery, watching one of the school barn owls carrying his letter to wherever Sirius was at. Maybe he should just hide in the Owlery for a little while. After all, none of the owls had 'Potter Stinks' badges. That surely counted for something. Maybe he should give Hedwig one. He knew she wasn't too thrilled with him at the moment. In his defense, Sirius had said it was too risky sending Hedwig as she stuck out. Not that it had mattered, she bit his finger anyway. Angry owl or school that hated him? Yes, maybe he would stay up here for a little while, away from everyone else. That was when the Owlery door opened. Go figure.

"Of course it's you," Harry said, after he realized just who had walked in. He went back to staring out the window. Out of everyone in this school, it just had to be her.

"Hello to you too," Daphne called from behind. Her voice sounded much further away than it should have. She must have walked into one of the rows of owls to select one. "Don't worry Potter. I know you're happy to see me."

"I wouldn't go as far as to say happy. Don't give yourself too much credit now."

"It's ok. I know how you really feel."

"Oh you do? And how is it, exactly, that I feel?"

"You're secretly glad I ran into you up here," he heard her say from behind one of the owl rows. "You're hoping I'll explain our little talk by the Quidditch Pitch."

"No," he said, a little too quickly. He quickly glanced around the Owlery, checking to make sure she couldn't see his face turn red. Luckily for him, she was still selecting an owl.

"Mhmm, I'm sure," she grinned. He still couldn't see her, but he knew. He just knew she was flashing that stupid grin of hers. You know the one; she made it when she proved she was right about something. "So what owl do you think I should use?"

"I..what?"

"Owl Potter. What owl should I send a letter with?"

"I don't think it particularly matters. I'm sure any will do the job just fine," Harry really didn't know what this girl's angle was.

"This owl is so beautiful; whose do you think it is? Do you think they would be willing to let me use her?" Harry had to turn to see just what she talking about. Daphne motioned to a snowy white owl on one of the top shelves.

Why? Did the Gods simply hate him now? There was an entire Owlery of bloody birds who could carry her stupid letter. Why in the name of Merlin did she just have to want Hedwig? This girl clearly had it in for him. He didn't even know what to say. So he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with one of his hands.

"That's uh, that's Hedwig," Why was he telling her this?

"Hedwig?" she asked softly, those blue eyes finding his.

"Yeah, she's my owl actually." 'Harry, shut up,' he told himself.

"Really? Could I borrow her?"

No. No you cannot. Why would I let a Slytherin use my owl? More specifically, why would I let you use my owl? Nope, sorry can't do it. You can use one of the school owls.

"Yeah sure," he found himself telling her.

Yep. That's it. It's official. I'm done. I give up. I can just tell Daphne Greengrass will be the death of me. To top it off, Hedwig had flown right down to Daphne, landing on her free hand. Traitor.

"She's so sweet," Daphne said as she stroked the white owl. "Did she give you that bite mark?"

"No," he replied again. Only problem was he was at a complete loss for words. "It was…"

"Yes?" There's that bloody grin again.

"Oh shut up."

"Thanks Potter," she continued grinning as she tied the letter to Hedwig. She turned and began walking back to the Owlery door. Stopping to glance over her shoulder, she added, "I'll be seeing you."

Harry was so astounded by the events that had just happened, that he failed to notice that Daphne Greengrass was not wearing a 'Support Cedric!' badge.

* * *

Time, funnily enough, has the ability to fly by when you do not want it to. That was how Harry seemingly blinked, and sure enough, the First Task was only a week away. The only bright side to this was that Harry was looking forward to talking to Sirius that night through the common room fire. Hermione had planned to help by dropping some dungbombs to clear the common room for him. All Harry had to do was get through the day, which included a Hogsmeade trip. Since Harry originally planned on not going, Hermione was going with Ron. Harry wouldn't have bothered going at all if Neville hadn't asked him if he wanted to go with him. Poor Neville, he had been given much more of a hard time than usual due to openly supporting Harry. Neville had been a true friend to him the past few weeks, so Harry felt he owed it to him to hang out with him in Hogsmeade.

So here he was, walking around Zonko's and Honeydukes with Neville. He was, surprisingly, having fun for one of the only times since being names a champion. Unless you count being caught on fire by a Skrewt of course. They spent a majority amount of the time joking around at Zonko's with Fred, George, and Lee. Around lunch time, the five of them ended up at the Three Broomsticks. Naturally, there were 'Potter Stinks' badges flashing all over the tavern. Harry and George went to get the butterbeer from Madame Rosmerta when someone bumped into them.

"Oy, watch it!" they called. "Oh, hey Potter."

Harry groaned. Was this girl stalking him or something?

"Hi Daphne," he sighed, somewhat reluctantly.

"Still on your mind eh? Enough to make you bump into me?" she grinned slyly.

"Yeah, I don't think so."

Daphne opened her mouth, for one of her oh so witty responses no doubt, when Madame Rosmerta interrupted them.

"Butterbeer for Greengrass," Madame Rosmerta called out.

"Well, that's me. I won't keep you all day. Later Potter."

George looked dumbstruck as the he watched the dirty blonde ponytail disappear into the crowd.

"What was that about Harry?"

"That, George, is a very good question."

The five boys hung out at the Three Broomsticks for quite awhile, getting very few visitors however. Hermione stopped by to ask Fred and George how to get to the kitchens for some reason. Probably for that SPEW nonsense. Ron decided to hang back, lucky for him. Harry had felt the urge to grab a 'Potter Stinks' badge from the passing by Hufflepuff and chuck it at Ron. Even Hagrid had stopped by with Professor Moody. Pulling Harry to the side, Hagrid asked him to head down to his cabin at midnight and to bring the invisibility cloak. Harry wasn't sure about it since it would probably made him late to meet Sirius. Maybe he could meet Hagrid later on, as it didn't make sense to risk missing Sirius. So now, here he was, knocking at Hagrid's door at three to midnight. Still didn't make any sense whatsoever, but it's a moot point now.

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For reasons known only to the Gamekeeper, they were visiting Madame Maxim. Why? Harry couldn't fathom. He just followed Hagrid and Madame Maxim. They just kept walking and walking. He was beginning to wonder if he was just the invisible third wheel on their moonlit date, when he heard a monstrous roar. Oh, it's just a dragon. Four of them in fact. That's a coincidence, there were four champions. Wait…bloody hell. He vaguely heard Hagrid talking to Charlie Weasley about the champions simply had to just get passed them. At least he didn't have to defeat it. It was one of those the glass is half full, half empty. But the fact that he still had to get passed a dragon made the glass much bigger, and practically bone dry.

The next thing Harry knew, he was huffing and puffing in front of the Gryffindor fire. Making it just in time, he saw Sirius's head appear in the fire. They began talking about the tournament. Sirius warned Harry to stay clear of Karkaroff as he used to be a Death Eater. Unfortunately, before Sirius could tell Harry what to do about the dragon conundrum, they heard footsteps approaching. It was Ron. Harry had missed hearing out on how to get past a dragon because Ron was a git. He asked Harry who he was talking to since he had heard voices. Harry, not caring about how rude he sounded, told him to mind his own business and chucked one of the Creevey's 'Potter Really Stinks' badges. He tried not to give a small laugh when it smacked him square on the forehead. He grabbed a second one and thought about throwing it, but decided against it. His point was made with the first badge, so he simply slipped the second into his pocket.

Deciding that he was not ready to go to sleep, seeing as how the prospect of facing a dragon was fresh on his mind, he decided to go walk by the lake. Perhaps the sight of a giant body of water would calm him down from a giant, fire breathing dragon. Walking straight past Ron, he went to the dormitory, grabbed the Marauders Map, and marched straight past Ron again, who hadn't moved a foot. Harry was halfway to the Entrance Hall when he decided to stop and swear that he was up no good. Filch was in his office and Mrs. Norris was by the Divination tower. Peeves was in the Trophy Room, no doubt causing trouble, as only Peeves could do. Everyone else was there they were supposed to be. All except one person. There was one dot that was not where it was supposed to be. On the top of the Astronomy Tower was a dot labeled Daphne Greengrass. Why was she up there? Nope, it was not his business. He was going to the lake, not the Astronomy Tower. Did he want to go up there? He wasn't entirely sure. Did it make sense for him to go to the Astronomy Tower? Well, it made about as much sense as everything else had recently, which was absolutely none at all. That was, no doubt, how he found himself standing at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower stairs not even ten minutes later.

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** Thus concludes chapter 3 of The Walk. One thing I completely forgot to mention until now (Epic fail on my part) is that the title of the story "The Walk" is named after the song "The Walk" by Imogen Heap. It sets a general tone for the story and for the interactions between Harry and Daphne. Well, it made sense in my mind anyways.**

**I probably won't be able to update again for about a week, yet another reason I wanted to go ahead and post this chapter. For those of you who keep coming back to read and are leaving reviews/messaging me, I just wanted to say you guys rock and thanks for the support so far. So yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and as I said in the first chapter, feel free to ask any questions you may have and I shall do my best to answer.**

**P.S. Sorry for any grammar errors. My grammar skills are somewhat lacking and it doesn't help that my copy of Microsoft Word's proofing error setting is about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest, to quote Rowan Atkinson, who is simply a genius.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I think we all know how this goes, but I don't own Harry Potter.**

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Harry tried to walk up the steps without making too much noise. Didn't want to give the girl a heart attack or anything. Nearing the top of the steps, he decided to stop and check the map again, as if to make sure it was in fact Daphne and that she was still there. Of course she was still there, where would she have gone? With a quick whisper of 'Mischief Managed,' he wiped the map clean. Harry took off the invisibility cloak and stuffed it out of sight before continuing up the last few steps. There was a lone figure standing against the tower wall, forearms leaning into the stone. With her back to the door, she stood gazing over the grounds, dirty blonde hair cascading down her back like a waterfall. She turned at the sound of him, a look of surprise upon seeing his identity.

"Potter? The hell you doing up here?"

"Nice to see you too Daphne," he grinned slightly.

"I thought you were Filch for a minute," she said as Harry leaned against the door frame.

"Not quite, Filch is in his office."

"You been following him too?" One of her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.

"Lucky guess. Besides who said I was following you?"

"I didn't, but you did," she grinned knowingly. "You expect me to believe you 'accidently' bumped into me at the Three Broomsticks?"

"Yes," Harry answered, rather bluntly.

"So then how did you know I was up here?" she asked the Gryffindor boy.

"I didn't," he lied, rather convincingly, if he did say so himself. For good measure, he added, "I come up here sometimes to think and what not. You?"

"Why should I tell you?" she asked, but not in a rude way. She still wore a slight grin on her face as she spoke. Harry simply shrugged and she laughed. "Alright Potter, but you better not go telling people."

"Oh I wouldn't dare," he joined in laughing.

"I like to come up here from time to time and look at the stars," her words were so earnest, he noted.

"Really?" Harry found himself asking before he could help it.

"Don't laugh Potter," she looked away, no doubt expecting Harry to smirk at her, or even bust out laughing. However, he surprised her. Boy did he surprise her.

"Mind if I join you?" She looked back at him, a shocked look on her face. Harry did have to laugh a little at her facial expression.

"If you like," her words were soft, as if they would simply float away without something to anchor them to the tower. He could tell she was trying not to smile, though he decided it was best to say nothing.

Harry walked over and, resting his forearms on the wall much as she was, stood next to her. They simply stood next to each other in silence, staring up at the sky. Harry had no idea how much time had passed before they spoke.

"Mars is bright tonight," Harry commented, remembering how lame it had sounded when the centaurs had repeated it during his first year. He didn't realize that he sounded much lamer than they had.

"What?" she sounded rather confused by this statement.

"Just something I heard somewhere, I…never mind."

"So how much have you been thinking about me?" she finally asked, he had been expecting this. He knew she was going to bring this up.

"Haven't we had this conversation already?" He questioned, remembering their conversation in the Owlery.

"Yes, but your answer was not satisfactory."

"Oh excuse me," he replied sarcastically.

"You're excused." He rolled his eyes at this, not that she could see anyways. She was still gazing up at the sky.

"But no, I haven't been."

"Potter, you are such a liar," she said as she playfully hit his shoulder. "Don't think I haven't noticed you looking my way when we're in the Great Hall, or when you're supposed to be taking care of our Skrewt. Or when you're supposed to brewing potions."

It was as if he had just stepped into a sauna. She made it sound like he was stalking her, when he would just happen to gaze in her direction from time to time.

"Merely trying to figure you out is all," he replied as smoothly as possible.

"So what have you figured out about me then?" she asked innocently.

"Not a thing."

"Am I that mysterious?" she laughed with a hint of satisfaction.

"I wouldn't go that far, I just can't figure out your angle in all of this," he said, rather honestly, which surprised him.

"Who says I have an angle?"

"Then what are you trying to do?" He asked. She was proving to be just as helpful as always with whatever point she was making.

"I know you're not that dense Potter," she replied as she turned around to lean against the wall with her back, brushing some of her dirty blonde hair out of her face as she did so.

"In my defense, I have been trying to prepare for an unknown task in a tournament I don't want to be in. I've been a little distracted," he admitted, which was almost true. While the first task was no longer unknown, he had virtually no idea how he was going to live to tell the tale. Digging his hands into his pockets, he felt something round. "Speaking of which, I got you a present."

"Trying to buy me off now Potter?" she said smoothly, much more smoothly than he had been all night, which honestly wasn't that difficult.

"I noticed you didn't have one, so I got you this to wear to the first task," he said as he pulled out the 'Potter Really Stinks' badge. He had almost forgotten he had pocketed one after chucking the first one at Ron. Why? He had no idea, just seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Potter Really Stinks? Very classy. Did you charm the 'really' in there just for me?" she laughed as he handed her the badge.

"If I say yes, would you believe me?"

"Nope."

"Well then. The Creevey brothers no doubt got some from Malfoy and tried to charm them to say Support Harry Potter. They did a bang up job no?"

"I don't know, I think they did a good job."

"Hush you."

"So why would you think I would want one of these?" Daphne asked after a moment. She turned again, this time to face him. The moonlight illuminated her really made her crystal blue eyes stand out, which of course made things all the more difficult for the Gryffindor boy.

"Why wouldn't you? Don't you secretly hate me or something?"

"You caught me. Don't be surprised when I push you off this tower. I sure hope no one finds out it was me," her sarcastic response did not miss a beat.

"Duly noted."

"So do you really think I hate you?" she asked honestly. There was no sarcasm or jokes lacing the question. Just a simple question with no alternative agenda.

Harry's first answer was yes. Wait a moment, said an inner voice, don't say yes Harry, it's probably a trap. Yes, that was it. This was some sort of female intuition test. And he was determined not to fail, Harry Potter was no troll!

"Umm, no?" Well Harry, he told himself, that certainly wasn't an outstanding response. I doubt it would even exceed expectations. Perhaps we should hold out for an acceptable?

"Smooth Potter, nice try. How about this time not answering my question with another question? I'll even be nice and give you a minute to really think about it."

Merlin, quick thinking? Would it be acceptable to call Hermione? No, he had to do this one for himself. So he stood there, well leaned really, on the top of the Astronomy Tower at 2:30 in the morning as his mind worked on overdrive. Did Daphne Greengrass secretly hate him? The more he thought about it, the more the yes in his head slowly dissolved, to be replaced by a no. She did not wear a 'Potter Stinks' badge, or even a 'Potter Really Stinks' badge for that matter. She never gave him and his friends a hard time unlike Malfoy, Parkinson and their gang. She had said down by the Quidditch Pitch that not all Slytherins were Death Eaters. Surely he hadn't become so narrow-minded to believe that all Slytherins were evil and all Gryffindors were good. Just look at the traitorous filth that was Peter Pettigrew. Just last year he was shown that it doesn't matter what house you come from, it is what you do with your life and the decisions you make.

"No," Harry decided on after a minute of silence. He hope she didn't take it as no he wouldn't answer, or possibly no he couldn't think of an answer in that time frame. Maybe he should clarify so she wouldn't think him a jerk, or an idiot. "No, I don't think you actually hate me."

"Awh thanks Potter, you're too sweet," he could almost see the sarcasm dripping off her words. At least it was in a joking, not hurtful, manner. At least he hoped. "Why did you think I hated you?"

"I guess because every Slytherin I've ever met has either been evil, or has been a blood purist like Malfoy."

"You mean you don't think all Slytherins are evil now?" The surprised look on her face was a tad big over exaggerated, but that was to be expected. It was probably the first thing he had learned from their chance encounters over a past few weeks. "You learned something?"

"I do that quite a lot, surprisingly. Just might not be the record holder or anything."

"That, Potter, is an understatement. I mean, it only took you," she raised her hand as if she was looking at a watch on her arm. "About two and half weeks give or take. And I only had to get you out on the Astronomy Tower in the dead of night."

"Oh be quite," he laughed. Though to be honest, she had a fair point. "Now I believe it is my turn to ask you a question Daphne."

"Hey, who said that was part of the rules?" Upon seeing the look on his face, she decided to give in. "Oh fine. Ask away Potter."

"Do you honestly believe that I put my own name into the Goblet of Fire?" He looked down when he said if, fiddling with his hands. If Harry was completely honest with himself, he would have said that he was fearing her answer, not that he would have ever admitted to it. Why? He wasn't sure. Just because they had talked about how not all Slytherins were evil did not mean that she would suddenly believe him. Not by a long shot. What bothered Harry the most was the fact that he cared what she thought. Why did he care what Daphne Greengrass thought about him? He had never spoken a word to her until about three weeks ago and only a handful of times since. Not to mention, their conversations had been quite bizarre, to say the least. The whole school, actually all three schools, thought he had entered himself. He didn't really care if they believed him or not, Ron being the exception, again not that he would ever admit it. But why was this one girls opinion mattering so much?

Daphne, going back to leaning against the stone wall, took her time with the question, not for a few seconds like Harry originally had. Clearly she was going straight for the Outstanding or the Troll; there were no shades of grey. The fact that she was taking the time to think about it was good. Right? What if she was thinking of the perfect way to tell him he was a liar and an attention seeker? Oh geez, what if she really was going to push him off the tower? Merlin, he needed to stop over thinking these things.

"Honestly, I'm not really sure what to believe," she answered, after what felt like eons. "Part of me had no reason to doubt you. After all, what you said before about the Chamber of Secrets fiasco was true. You did have nothing to do with that even though everyone tried to prosecute you without knowing all the evidence. On the other hand, I don't have any real reasons to believe you."

Well, that could have gone worse. He was still on top of the tower at least. Although he was wrong, there was a grey area and she had found it amidst the black and white. While not quite the answer he had hoped for, Harry knew he couldn't blame her. For the possible first time since Hagrid made them partners in class did Harry actually know what to say to the blonde haired girl.

"I was raised by Muggles you know," Harry finally spoke. "When Voldemort," she gave an obvious wince, "killed my parents, I was taken to live with my aunt and uncle on my Mum's side. She was Muggleborn you see. I spent the rest of my life up until my eleventh birthday not knowing magic existed, or who I really was."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me," she interrupted hastily, after figuring out where he was headed with it.

"No, I want to," said Harry, quite earnestly. "Anyways, Hagrid came and told me on my eleventh birthday that I was a wizard, a bit of a shock to say the least. I was even more surprised to find out that I was famous in the Magic World. I'm sure most people would have been ecstatic to find out they were so famous. I honestly had no idea what to do with it, up until then what I wanted most was to be normal. To have a Mum and a Dad and live a normal life. Strange, isn't it? Everywhere I went, people just lined up to shake my hand and be able to gawk at my scar like I'm some sort of hero or something, which I don't think I am for the record. And I still want to be normal. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I found out I was a wizard, but not for the reasons people think. I had finally found some place I felt like I truly belonged. Even then I still wanted to be normal. I just wanted to get through Hogwarts just like everyone else. I suppose a calm, average life was too much to ask for when you're stuck being Harry Potter no?"

"Well, there you have it. I can't think of anything else to say to try and convince you," Harry finished his story, finally looking up to find Daphne facing him again, blue eyes staring him down, dirty blonde hair swaying steadily in the wind.

"I don't know what to say," was all she said. He couldn't hold it against her; he had kinda just sprung it on her like that. On the bright side, this surprise did not come with a Blast Ended Skrewt like the last one had.

"How about you think about it for a few days and get back to me? The First Task isn't for a week and I would prefer to die at least knowing if you believe me or not," he laughed, causing the chilly wind to dry out his throat.

"Seems fair, since I gave you nearly a month since our talk on the Quidditch Pitch. I guess I'm just a little more quick witted than you Potter. I'll give it some thought though ok? Now, I think I'll be heading to bed now. It's getting just a tad too cold for my taste. I'll see you later Potter."

She began walking across the Astronomy Tower when Harry thought of something. Pulling the parchment and his wand out of his pocket, he whispered to it, revealing the map. At this point, Daphne was already half way down the stairs. He called after her and, after a minute, saw her figure appear in the doorway.

"Yes Potter?" she asked, with only a slight roll of her eyes.

"Try to avoid going by the Charms corridor. I know it's one of the faster ways back to the Dungeons, but Peeves is floating around there."

"How could you possibly know that?" she asked, astounded by this piece of information. Was he simply messing with her? He simply grinned at her.

"Magic."

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**I had planned on posting this a couple of days ago, but I just found out I got a new job. One in which I have to move about 8 time zones away, so I've been getting things prepared for that. I will try to start posting about once a week, I can't promise anything because I'm not sure exactly how busy I will be working at my new job when I start. But I will post as much as I can.**

**Anyways, this was chapter 4 of The Walk. I do hope you guys enjoyed it. This was definitely my favorite chapter to write so far. I had a lot of fun writing it, so I hope you guys like it as much as I do! Any questions, feel free to ask.**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter my friends!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, I can't say I've magically gained the rights to Harry Potter since last chapter. Oh well.**

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For Daphne Greengrass, Charms was one of her personal favorite classes. Although none of the classes held anything against Transfiguration and Ancient Runes, her all time favorites, Charms was definitely near the top. While it did come fairly naturally to her, no doubt due to her Mother's brilliance in Charms, she still had to put forth at least some effort. Not this time however. The Slytherins had Charms with the Hufflepuffs and Daphne had been the first to get the hang of the summoning charm. While it was true that today's class was theory rather than the practical portion, Daphne still managed to suppress a grin when Professor Flitwick had awarded her 20 points last week for being the first in the class to get her cushion to soar right at her, rather than merely flopping over like Ernie MacMillan had done several times.

Today, however, she doubted even Transfiguration, the greatest subject ever, could have kept her mind on the lesson. Against her will, a certain obnoxious Gryffindor kept penetrating her thoughts. It could be argued that their past interactions, though few in number, she had certainly tried to annoy the boy. She admitted that she did not really know the Boy Who Lived at all, besides what everyone else knew about his past and the things she had heard from Malfoy. While she did not know much else about him, she still found him slightly obnoxious. He did seem to walk around sometimes as if he were above the rules. She remembered that time in their first year where he and his little gang went against almost every rule and nearly got themselves killed, and Quirrell actually did die. Then there was second year, where they had also gone against about every rule and went on another suicide mission. She wasn't sure what had happened last year, no one was, but to be sure it involved trouble. While she wasn't sure how much of it was all true, she highly doubted there was a basilisk in the school and no one seemed to notice it, the record spoke for itself that Potter did break rules.

At the same time however, Daphne did not necessarily believe everything she heard, especially from Draco Malfoy. If everything he said was true, then Harry Potter was the world's biggest, most fowl, big-headed egomaniac whose sole purpose in life was to make people worship him as though he were a God. She might be wrong here, but that seemed to be a tad bit delusional. Potter never really struck her as an evil prat who must suffer and bow to those superior to him, not that Malfoy was superior in anyway shape or form. Potter never had the 'holier-than-thou' attitude; she just thought he was slightly arrogant when it came to rule breaking and what not.

One thing was for certain, and that was that Daphne Greengrass did not like Draco Malfoy. He did think he was above everyone else. While Daphne was Pureblood, she didn't necessarily like how most Pureblood families were under the impression that they were better than Muggleborns and that Muggles 'stole magic.' If you could steal magic then there wouldn't be any squibs would there? Her father was Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, one of the divisions of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Her mother, meanwhile, worked as one of the higher-ups in the Muggle Liaison Office. Naturally, Daphne had grown up in a household that was much more like a Muggle house than a majority of the Wizarding houses. This was mainly due to the fact that her mother often had Muggle and Muggleborns in their home because of her job. While the Greengrass's were a respected and old Pureblood family, they were not as well liked by other Pureblood families for their fondness of Muggles, not that Daphne and Astoria minded. Because of this, Daphne was not the most well liked in Slytherin house, not that she cared about that either. She had Tracey Davis, who was really the only other girl she liked apart from her sister. If there was one person besides Malfoy Daphne couldn't stand, it was Pansy Parkinson. She did not mind Millicent Bulstrode, but Pansy had gotten her claws into Millicent first year, so oh well. Really, the only other Slytherin apart from Tracey she spoke to on a regular basis was Blaise Zabini. Daphne and Blaise had practically grown up together, as their mums were childhood friends. While Daphne never did know exactly how Blaise's many stepfathers mysteriously died, leaving them loads of money, she got along quite well with Blaise and his mother. She almost felt sorry for Blaise since he went through so many stepfathers, and to top it off he had to share a dormitory with Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle. She vaguely wondered how Blaise didn't hate Potter on principle solely for the fact of he probably heard much more about him that Blaise wanted to.

And we're back to Potter. Daphne had expected this. Ever since their conversation on the Astronomy Tower, she had found her thoughts kept leading her to the Gryffindor boy. Although if she were completely honest with herself, it had been slowly doing that since their first Care of Magical Creatures class as partners. It was quite frustrating to say the least.

"What do you think Miss Greengrass?" Professor Flitwick's voice awoke Daphne from her thoughts as quickly as though he had poured a bucket of ice water on her. Suddenly aware that the entire class was staring at her, she felt the burning sensation in her cheeks slowly creep up her face. Damn it, now Potter was even causing her to become distracted in her lessons.

She had no clue what Professor Flitwick was just saying. She could hear a snigger from a few rows behind her. She didn't even need to look back to know that it was Parkinson. Her mind was suddenly working at high speeds. Today's class was theory on Summoning Charms. At least that narrowed it down. Daphne was about to ask the Charms Professor to repeat the question, under the pretext of pretending that she had missed the only part of the question because she was still contemplating something Professor Flitwick had already said. Well something that she actually remembered him saying. She opened her mouth to speak when she heard the bell signaling the end of class. Talk about good timing. Tossing her belongings into her bag, she slid the bag over her shoulder, straightened her skirt and made her way to the Great Hall for lunch. She was halfway down the corridor when someone called after her.

"Hey Greengrass, wait up!"

"Oh, it's you," Daphne said flatly, turning back to the direction she was walking.

"You know, you think you would be happier to see your own sister. It's ok though. I know you love meeeee," Astoria sang as she caught up with her older sister. "Will you sit with me at lunch today?"

"Tori, you know I scare you're classmates. Do you like seeing them shake in their robes?" While in several cases, most families end up in the same houses, the Greengrass's were a house divided. Daphne had taken after her father and been sorted into Slytherin, while Astoria was sorted into Ravenclaw, just as their mum had been. Considering she was only fourteen, Daphne was apparently scary according to every one of Tori's fellow second year Ravenclaws for reasons she couldn't fathom. Daphne didn't think she was that scary, but oh well. Maybe it was because she was in Slytherin or something. This was just like it was with Potter, they must believe she would go dark side or something. Damn it, there that boy was again. Honestly, she couldn't even have a simple conversation with her little sister.

"I know, it's fun to watch," seeing her little sister's goofy grin pushed all thought of Potter out of her mind for the time being.

"You really should be in Slytherin with that kind of mentality. Why don't you just eat lunch with that annoying Ackerley boy who always follows you around? You know, the one who's always twitching," she said, trying a different tactic. Upon looking down at her twelve year old sister, who was an entire head length below her, what she saw made her sigh heavily. "Tori, don't give me that look. You look like someone just kicked your puppy. Stop, you look like an idiot."

The face held, in fact it hadn't even changed a bit. Merlin, her little sister drove her mental. Why does she have to make that stupid face?

"Merlin, I can't believe we came from the same gene pool," Daphne rolled her eyes as she pulled on her little sister's ponytail playfully. "If I say yes will you stop making that stupid face?"

"You know you can't resist the Tori face," the brunette grinned ecstatically. "It's because I'm just so darn cute."

"Yeah and if I ever see it again, I'm telling people you were adopted. Besides, you know I only agree because I can't have people seeing us together while you look like a fool."

"You're just jealous because you can't pull it off," Astoria replied as they walked into the Great Hall and made their way to the Ravenclaw table.

"Yes, I do take great pride in not looking like a fool," Daphne said plainly. As an older sister, she was allowed to pick on her little sister and have it be ok. When other people do it, they face the Greengrass wrath. This was how their conversations usually went, Astoria trying to be cute while Daphne picked on her. It was their way of showing they cared.

"You excited to watch the First Task this weekend?" Of course she had to mention the tournament. As if Potter wasn't bothering her thoughts enough.

"Yeah I guess. Better be interesting," she answered as nonchalantly as possible. Subconsciously, her eyes began scanning the Gryffindor table.

"Well, I'm excited. I heard that the Champions were going to have to tame a Chimera, and then race them. First one to complete a lap around the Quidditch Pitch while riding their Chimera wins the most points. Then of course, this one blonde girl in third year must have completely lost her marbles. She keeps going on about Blibbering Humdingers. I've never heard of them have you? Daphne, are you even listening to me?" Upon realizing that her sister was no longer paying her any mind, she began following Daphne's gaze. "Who are you looking for?"

"No one. I was just tuning you out because you talk way too much," Daphne switched her attention back to the sandwich she was currently holding as easily as though someone had just changed the television channel.

"Well, that's just rude," Astoria wrinkled her nose. "So what is going on with you and Harry Potter? That's who you were looking for right?"

Daphne wanted nothing more than to smack her sister upside the head with her sandwich.

"Why do you think I want and/or have anything to do with Potter?" Daphne asked coolly before setting down the sandwich and reaching for her pumpkin juice.

"Because I heard you guys were seen together at Hogsmeade and the Quidditch Pitch," Astoria replied happily, as though this was some sort of amazing gossip.

"Where, pray tell, did you hear that?"

"Oh, you know, people. I can't snitch on my sources." Her sister was going to rival Skeeter one day.

"I have nothing to do with Potter. He is merely my partner in Care of Magical Creatures because there was no one else left to work with," Daphne replied, quite dryly.

"Yeah, righttt," Astoria words were weighted down with sarcasm that was not missed. She must be learning from Daphne. "Besides, wasn't it you who told me not to wear those 'Potter Stinks,' badges AND try to convince some Ravenclaws to do the same?"

"That's because those badges are quite impertinent. You're not the mean Greengrass, remember? That's title is reserved for your dear older sister."

"How come you're not wearing then, Miss impertinent?"

It's official. Astoria Greengrass's mission in life was to annoy her sister. Why did she have to be too damn smart for her own good? Granted, she had to have been put in Ravenclaw for a reason, but still.

"There is nothing wrong with the message. I'm sure Potter does stink, but it's a fashion statement. They look horrible with my robes."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," from the corners of her eyes, Daphne could see her sister roll her eyes, but did not say anything else. As annoying as Tori could be, she was intelligent enough to know when to drop certain things, or she would be extremely hard headed. Luckily this was one of those drop it moments.

"As entertaining as this conversation has been, I have another class to attend." Daphne said as she stood up and grabbed her bag. She ruffled her sister's pony tail again before adding, "I'll see you later squirt."

Daphne reflected briefly over her words with her sister as she made her way down to the hut on the edge of the forest. Unbeknownst to Tori, Daphne did in fact have a 'Potter Stinks' badge. In fact, hers had a one up on all the others. Why she wasn't wearing it, however, was a different question. One in which she wasn't sure of the answer. She was one of the first to arrive at Care of Magical Creatures today. This would be the first time she saw Potter face to face since the Astronomy Tower. Merlin, this would be a potentially awkward class.

'Oh well,' Daphne thought with a bit of a sigh. 'Maybe Potter will blow up again.'

* * *

**Well, here is my attempt as writing from a third-person limited following Daphne. A majority of this story will be third person limited to Harry, but there will be a few instances where it will be third person limited to Daphne. Let me know if you guys liked following Daphne for a little bit and if so, I shall try to include some more Daphne Chapters. Also, I apologize for any bad grammar and such in this chapter. I have been busy getting things together to move that I unfortunately did not get to edit the chapter as in depth as I wanted, but I really wanted to update for you guys at the same time. So I hope you can forgive me for any mistakes.**

**I plan on posting one more chapter before I leave for my new job in a week. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed chapter 5 of The Walk!**

**Until next time...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Despite what some people may believe, I still do not own Harry Potter. **

* * *

Daphne slowly made her way to the greenhouses for Herbology after completely another Care of Magical Creatures, wrapping her left hand in a handkerchief. The class hadn't been completely as awkward as she had thought. Her and Harry's Skrewt, lucky them, was the largest one in the group and it showed just how size mattered. There wasn't any time for her and Harry to talk about anything as their Skrewt seemed hell-bent on doing the exact opposite of what they had in mind. Not only was their Skrewt the biggest, but also seemed to be the most rebellious, go figure. After nearly ten minutes of fighting with the blasted thing, they had managed to wrestle the damn thing into its magically reinforced crate. Nursing several cuts and burns, they finished with a sigh of relief. At least Potter learned from his mistake and stopped tying the rope around the blasting end. Rewrapping her cut and burned hand in the handkerchief, Daphne looked over her for a moment and saw Potter and Longbottom make their way back to the castle. She had caught bits of their conversation as they had left Hagrid's class, distinctly hearing the words 'bloody predictions' and 'fraud.' Daphne had to laugh to herself as she thought about Potter being stuck in Divination for next hour and a half. Why he, or anyone really, bothered to take that useless subject was beyond her.

Daphne quietly took her seat in the greenhouse still thinking about the previous lesson. Well, more on Potter than anything. It bothered her that he had not made any effort to ask her if she had an answer for him yet, or even to talk to her. Granted, with their Skrewt problem there had not been much time to talk, but that wasn't the point! Normally, she wouldn't give a damn if Potter talked to her or not. No, what bothered her was that he was being so; she hated to say or even think it, nice about the whole situation. Everyone in the school believed he had entered himself in the tournament, with the exception of Granger and Longbottom. Even Weasley didn't believe him, and they were supposed to be best friends.

Potter, if what he says is true, did not enter himself into the tournament. Why hasn't he gone out of his way and bent over backwards to get people to believe him? Even if he did enter himself, why wouldn't he gloat about it? He was being forced to compete anyways so it's not like they would pull him from the tournament or anything. Almost anybody in the school would be a braggart if they had managed to successfully hoodwink such a powerful object as the Goblet of Fire, not to mention Professor Dumbledore's age line. Malfoy would more than likely never shut up about it. So if Potter _did_ enter his name, why bother lying about it? The worst he would probably get would be detention and lost some house points, but that's nothing considering he would be in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

The question was why wouldn't he be convincing people he didn't do it? Was he not bothering because he would be fighting a losing battle? If that were the case, Daphne did not blame him at all for not bothering to convince people of his innocence. If his own best friend wouldn't believe him, who would? In addition to that, trying to sway the Hogwarts students to a different mindset was about as easy as trying to blindly swim out of a riptide. Or maybe he had already tried and simply gave up after failing to persuade his house mates. The Gryffindors were all supporting Potter anyways, but that doesn't mean they necessarily believe his story.

He had gone out of his way to convince her though. Their talk on the Astronomy Tower had seemed like eons ago, definitely not a couple of days. She still didn't know what to believe. There was practically a civil war going on inside her brain. The logical part of her brain looked at what she knew of Potter and it told her that he was lying. At the same time, however, the emotional/expressive side of her brain was screaming the exact opposite. It believed Potter whole heartedly and was practically begging and pleading with her to do the same.

Daphne Greengrass was a logical person. Coming from a family where her father was Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, and thus had a background in Law, facts were essential. Learning from her father at a young age, the facts are what make a case. It is a well known fact that Potter breaks the rules. It is also a fact that Potter is famous for defeating the Dark Lord as a baby. It is also a fact that Weasley, Potter's best friend, thinks he entered himself. Facts pile onto each other in a logical manner in order to make a case. In this case, to show that Potter did, in fact, enter his own name.

'Not necessarily,' came a voice in the back of her mind. 'Remember what your mother told you.'

When Daphne was young, there was a big case in the Wizengamot about a murder. Her father had initially been the lead investigator until the Aurors took over. It seemed like a clear cut case. All the facts pointed to the primary suspect being guilty, they even used Priori Incantatem to show the last spells used by the suspects wand, which showed the same spell used to kill the other wizard. The suspect swore up and down that he was innocent and that his story was the truth. He begged the Wizengamot to allow the use of Veritaserum to prove he was innocent. The finally approved the truth serum and, sure enough, the man was innocent. Upon further investigation into the man's Veritaserum story, they found proof that he was in fact telling the truth of his innocence and was framed by the culprit.

When Daphne heard her parents talking one night about the case, she seemed thoroughly confused. She asked her mum how the man could be innocent when all the facts her father had helped find showed the man to be guilty. Her mother told her a quote from a Muggle which Daphne still remembers to this day. "The truth is more important that the facts." So just what exactly was the truth in her current situation?

"Son of a bitch!" she found herself yelling in Greenhouse 3. While lost in her thoughts, again during a lesson, she had been surreptitiously grabbed by the ever present Venomous Tentacula plant. Professor Sprout merely chuckled before helping Daphne out. After years of seeing students curse at the plant, it had become quite amusing to the Herbologist.

* * *

Daphne Greengrass walked into the Great Hall, a determined look on her face. She scanned the Gryffindor table several times before determining that Potter was not there, unfortunately, neither was Longbottom or Granger. Daphne went to turn around and simply head back to the Slytherin Common Room when she decided to change tactics at top speed. She had spotted the infamous Weasley twins holding court at part of the Gryffindor table. Daphne tried her best to seem unsurprised and unfazed when one of the students suddenly burst into a large canary. Everyone surrounding them roared with laughter.

"Oi, you two," Daphne pointed at the twins. What were their names again? It was something stupid like Gred and Forge. "You two seen Potter?"

"Ohh Gred look. The snakes are looking for our dear Harrykins."

"You know Forge, I wonder what she wants our Harrykins for? What'd you reckon?"

"Well Gred, I'd say the snake might want to do something to our Champion. Perhaps talk to..."

"Or insult..."

"Or maim..."

"Or dispose off..."

"Maybe she would like to gather revenge for our Harrykins being a dreadful Magical Creatures partner."

"You know brother, that does seem likely."

"Ma'am, would you kindly tell us your intentions with little Harrykins?"

Daphne gaped at them. Was this some sort of joke, or were these two just mad? She had never met anyone quite like these twins, that was for sure.

"Are you guys pulling my leg?" she found herself asking.

They gave a simultaneous gasp of horror with a look of offense written on their faces.

"Ma'am you do us a dishonor."

"We would never grab hold of one of your legs and pull."

"Someone could get hurt!"

"We are much more chivalrous than that!"

"Are you two serious right now?" Daphne gave a look annoyance as she asked, praying for patience.

"Of course not Madame."

"We are most definitely not 'serious' as you call us."

"We go by Gred and Forge..."

"Or Fred and George..."

"If you prefer..."

"At your service." They stood together and gave a deep bow.

"Can you two just answer my question?" These twins were going to annoy her to death, which was saying something considering she grew up with Astoria.

"Oh, but Miss. Snakey..."

"We have answered your question, you see..."

"You asked if we were serious."

"Was our answers not to satisfaction?"

"No, not that question," Daphne grumbled.

"I do believe we already answered the other question miss."

"We will not be pulling anyone's legs out from under them."

"For the love of...just tell me where Potter is." It's official. They were the human replicates of Peeves.

"Oh, that question."

"Well, why didn't you just say so?"

"You had us answering questions about pulling legs..."

"And being serious."

"As to little Harrykins whereabouts..."

"We don't know."

"Perhaps try the library."

"I do hope we have proved most helpful Madame."

"Please do not hesitate to contact us with more requests in the future."

Daphne just stared disbelieving at them for a moment, before turning on her heels, whipping her blonde hair around in the process. She hardly thought that those two fools deserved a thank you. Just before she was out of ear shot, she heard them mumble to their group of friends.

"Poor Harry."

"Yeah, it was nice knowing him."

* * *

Daphne made her way to the library, taking the shortest route she knew to get there. Practically knocking a tiny Ravenclaw boy over, she pushed her way into the library. Doing a once-over of the library told her Potter was not there. She did, how spot Longbottom over in a corner, hiding behind a stack of Herbology books. While walking, she thought of the best way to coerce Longbottom into telling her where Potter was. Subtlety would probably work the best, yes be subtle Daphne. Subtle and smooth.

"Hey Longbottom, where is Potter?"

Yes, outstanding job with the subtlety. The poor Gryffindor looked around, a look of confusion as to who why anyone wanted to talk to him. His looks became slightly alarmed when he saw just who was addressing him, and realizing who they were looking for.

"Uhh, I umm," he struggled to find his words. Or perhaps it was a clever rouse, pretending to be scared until he thought of a good lie. Daphne put her hands on her hips, cocked her head to the side and let out an audible sigh.

Longbottom looked around, a serious look on his face, before whispering, "Are you going to kill him or something?"

"What?" Her mouth hung open in shock. That definitely wasn't what she had expected. She couldn't tell if he was messing her around or not. Perhaps he was extremely worried for his friend. Although, with the First Task less than a week away, there was no doubt he was worried for Potter. "No Longbottom, I'm not going to kill him."

"Then what do you want with him?" came the concerned voice.

"I just want to talk to him, that's all," she was beginning to lose her patience.

"I think Professor Flitwick was allowing him to use the Charms classroom for something."

"Thanks Longbottom. You have been most helpful," Daphne immediately set course for the Charms room, allowing the boy to return to his Herbology work.

* * *

Upon reaching the Charms room, Daphne opened the door, took a step in, and was promptly hit in the face with a cushion. She jumped slightly in surprise.

"What the hell?" she heard herself say before she could register just what, exactly, had happened. Realizing that Potter had just thrown a cushion at her, she blinked several times before deciding on the best course of action. She calmly brushed her bangs out of her face, straightened her skirt, picked up the abandoned cushion, and flung it as hard as she could back at the boy.

"What was that for?" he asked in surprise after he had recovered from the same shock he had just caused her.

"You just threw a bloody cushion at me you prat!"

"That was an accident," he tried to explain. "I was trying to practice the summoning charm on it. Instead of flying towards me, it well…it sort of flew the opposite direction. You just happened to have walked in at the wrong moment."

"Very smooth Potter." Daphne walked across the room and leaned with her back against the window seal. She crossed her arms and looked at the still slightly stunned Gryffindor. "Well?"

"Well what?" He looked thoroughly confused at this point. She was beginning to suspect that was his most used facial expression, at least when talking to her.

"Apologize," she answered simply. "For being a prat and hitting me with a cushion."

"But that was an accident!"

"Then apologize for casting a dreadful summoning charm." Daphne began grinning widely internally at the incredulous look on his face. She really got a tad too much enjoyment out of messing with the Boy Who Lived. He looked for a moment as though he was considering it.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked, rather testily if you asked Daphne.

"Calm down there Potter. No need to be rude."

"Sorry, just a little on edge, what with the First Task and," he stopped mid-sentence and let it hang there.

"At least you know what to expect," she said simply. Upon seeing the look on his face, she added, "they didn't tell you, did they?"

"Nope. We're supposed to go into the task blind. Bagman said something along the lines of 'Courage in the face on the unknown,' or something like that."

"Well, do try not to get yourself killed or anything."

"My, your words are inspiring," he replied dryly. "Did you really come all the way here just to tell me not to die?"

"No, actually," she hesitated for dramatic effect before continuing, "I wanted to tell you that I have an answer to your question. The one you asked on top of the Astronomy Tower."

* * *

**A/N: So, unfortunately this will be last post before I start my new job. I planned on posting this a couple days later, but today is my Dad's birthday and he wanted to try and post a new chapter on his birthday because he rather enjoys this story, for some unknown reason. But anyways, Happy Birthday to my old man!**

**The quote Daphne mentions "The truth is more important than the facts" is by Frank Lloyd Wright, who was an architect. **

**On another note, I hope you guys enjoyed chapter 6 of The Walk. Several people told me that they enjoyed reading from a third person following Daphne, so here is another chapter with it. I had already planned this chapter to be following Daphne, but it does help that people liked it. So yet again I hope you guys liked it and all that jazz. Comment if you like, feel free to ask any questions, or simply read. Whatever floats your boat really. I usually use water to float mine, but if you have found another way then by all means carry on. **

**Until next time my friends...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I didn't own Harry Potter. It would make a pretty damn good Christmas present though.**

* * *

"Well, do try not to get yourself killed or anything."

That was it. The ever so helpful words from one Daphne Greengrass. Harry reflected upon their encounter in the Charms room when he had been making horrible attempts to master the summoning charm for the dragon conundrum. Flanked by Hermione and Neville at the Gryffindor table, Harry was making an attempt at eating lunch, but soon gave up as it proved ineffective. Everything simply tasted like cardboard.

Harry was having a difficult time trying to think about anything other than the prospect of facing a monstrous dragon in the next hour or so. Despite Hermione and Neville trying to boost his confidence any way they could, it wasn't helping. The First Task loomed like the blade of a guillotine and Harry would soon be preparing for his walk to the execution ring.

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind, than did Professor McGonagall walk up to him and tell him it was time. He heard Neville and Hermione wish him luck as he got up from the table. He felt Professor McGonagall place a hand on his right shoulder and walk him out. Harry could vaguely recall his fellow Gryffindors telling him good luck, and something about bets came from a pair of very familiar voices.

Professor McGonagall began telling him to just try his best, remain calm, and that they had wizards standing by in case of emergency. Was her voice slightly shaking? Harry didn't remember ever hearing his head of house sound so nervous in his four years at Hogwarts. The only closest thing had been when Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets two years ago. The next thing Harry knew, she had guided him into a tent and gave him a pat on the shoulder and told him good luck.

Bagman began explaining everything to the four champions. From what Harry gathered based on reactions, Fleur and Viktor both knew about the dragons, which was to be expected. Cedric, like Harry, had tried to act surprised when they were told the details. At least Cedric now knew for a fact that Harry had been telling the truth when they spoke several days ago. He had seemed a little skeptic, but at the same time had wanted to believe Harry wasn't trying to throw him for a loop or anything. That was when Moody had pulled him into his office and gave him some 'good, general advice,' as he had called it. Just have to calm down, concentrate, and wait his turn. Now that he learned he would be going last, and against the horntail no less, Harry sat in a corner of the tent, awaiting his time to go.

* * *

"Well, do try not to get yourself killed or anything."

Those were the all so inspiring words she had given him last time they spoke in that unused Charms classroom. She had not run into Potter except for classes during the rest of the week, so those were the almighty encouraging words he was no doubt thinking about as he ate his meal before the First Task. At least it was a little more memorable than the endless 'good lucks' he was no doubt receiving from his house mates.

Daphne was in the process of trying to force feed herself toast, which in all honesty was about as easy as eating carpet. Daphne looked up and scanned the Gryffindor table, easily finding Potter sitting with Granger and Longbottom. Merlin, he's staring at his plate like it's his last meal. Glancing around at the other tables, she found that the other three champions also looked slightly nervous. Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, and Professor Sprout each left the staff table to walk their student out to where the First Task was being held. After a swig of pumpkin juice, she found Potter again, only to find Professor McGonagall place a hand on his shoulder and guide him out of the Great Hall. Lunch continued as normal for the next ten minutes, except with everyone chattering about what was coming in the task, before Professor Dumbledore rose from the staff table and called for silence.

Daphne could see Professor Dumbledore talking and heard sounds coming from him, but could not comprehend anything. It honestly sounded like a bunch of background noise and was indistinguishable. She didn't know how much time had passed; she was simply sitting there, thinking about what the first task could possibly entail. Suddenly, everyone was excitedly getting out of their seats and making their way to the Entrance Hall. Daphne felt herself being swept away with the rest of the students to the enclosed area of the First Task. She had barely blinked when she found herself sitting in the stands between Tracey Davis, her best friend, and her sister Astoria. She barely heard Professor Dumbledore announce to the stands what the First Task was and about how everyone would be safe. Oh, so it was just a dragon. Potter simply had to get past a dragon. At least it wasn't what Astoria had heard with the taming and racing of Chimeras.

Wait….did he just say dragon? Bloody dragons?! Well, this is just great. Now she could no longer torment Potter if/when he died a fiery death. Maybe he could pull something out of a hat though. Daphne was only vaguely aware of Diggory, Krum, and that French girl getting past their dragons. Diggory did some sort of fancy transfiguration as a distraction. Krum, being the headstrong Quidditch player he was, fought head on, shooting spells at its eyes. That French girl did some weird sort of hypnotic spell. Or at least that had been the way Tracey and Astoria had described it to her.

Finally, Potter came out of the champion's tent, looking much smaller than the first three champions. Maybe it had to do with the massive black dragon he was facing, which was larger than the other three dragons. He looked around, looking only mildly intimidated compared to the roaring Hungarian Horntail. He waved his wand in the air, and absolutely nothing happened. He simply stood there. Daphne could hear snickers and laughs from many of her fellow Slytherins.

"Come on Potter, do something! Don't just stand there looking like an idiot," Daphne heard someone way, only to realize seconds later it was her own voice she was hearing.

* * *

'Man, I hope my Firebolt is on its way. I'm just standing here. I must look like a complete idiot.' Harry thought as he stood in the giant clearing, feeling like an ant with everyone staring at him, waiting for some spectacular magic they had no doubt seen from the other champions. What was all the advice everyone was giving me beforehand?

Good luck, good luck, good luck, good luck, good luck, try not to die. Thanks Daphne. Man did his friends give some bang up advice. Sadly, the most useful piece of advice, not counting his conversation with Moody, had been from a Slytherin, and she had been telling him not to die. Well, it certainly seemed like a given, that's for sure.

That was when he heard something rushing towards him in the wind. Harry turned to find his faithful mount hovering at his side, awaiting command. Grinning to himself, Harry jumped on and took off. Well, at least the spell had worked, now to outmaneuver this dragon. Harry began flying circles around, trying to get the horntail to even budge from its spot. Doing what he always did during a Quidditch match, Harry began flying on instinct, occasionally listening to the little voice in the back of his head.

Suddenly taking off in a dive, he quickly pulled up to avoid a large breath of fire, before taking off again. This time to be met with the dragon's spiky tail, he swerved as fast as he could, but still managed to get caught in his shoulder by one of the spikes.

'Now, didn't we agree to not get ourselves killed?' his inner voiced asked, ignoring the throbbing pain his shoulder was emanating. Harry tried to ignore the fact that this sarcastic inner voice of his had sounded strikingly similar to Daphne in t his particular moment.

That was when the horntail had taken off, spreading her wings to fly at and end this annoying gnat's life. Seeing his opening, Harry gave an enormous spurt of speed and dived. Barely dodging another burst of flames, Harry was back in the air, the golden egg clutched safely in his uninjured arm. That was when the volume had seemed to be turned back up. The stands were erupting with applause and cheers. Flying back to the champions tent, he landed, but only to be whisked away into another tent.

"I just knew you would be in here, Mr. Potter," came the brisk voice of Madame Pomfrey.

"Hi Madame Pomfrey," Harry grinned widely. Everything seemed much funnier now for some odd reason. "I was beginning to miss our time spent together."

"Well, at this rate Potter, I might as well give you your own private bed in the Hospital Wing. How do you feel?"

"I just fought a dragon," Harry found himself laughing at this. Boy was he losing his marbles. "And I didn't die."

"Yes Mr. Potter, I can see that."

"And I barely got hurt this time. Aren't you proud?" he grinned at the Hogwarts healer.

Madame Pomfrey shook her head at this, rolling her eyes in the process. "Well, come sit down so I can take a look at that shoulder."

Following Madame Pomfrey to into a cubicle, Harry spotted Cedric, who was slightly burned in a few spots, sitting on a cot in his own cubicle. Upon seeing Harry still alive and moving, and with his egg no less, he raised a fist in triumph, a large grin covering his face. Harry grinned back at the Hufflepuff, mimicking his actions. Upon entering his cubicle in the tent, Madame Pomfrey had him sit on another cot.

"Take your shirt off Potter so I can see where the spikes got your arm better. I'm going to go check on Diggory and give him more burn paste," she said to the Gryffindor.

"Do I have to? You can see it fine, my sleeve is torn to shreds," Harry protested at once.

"No need to be embarrassed Potter. It's not like I've never seen a shirtless boy in all my years as a Healer, especially with all the times you have visited me with your never-ending injuries," with that, she turned and walking into Cedric's cubicle.

Harry could feel the heat rising in his face as he set the golden egg beside him and gingerly pulled off the red and black Hogwarts shirt he was wearing for the task. Now he was no longer flying and moving about, he became aware of just how much his shoulder was hurting. He didn't even bother cleaning the blood up, it just kept slowly leaking down his arm anyway.

'Well, you survived one task, just got two left,' he found himself thinking. 'Unfortunately, those are more than likely going to be more difficult, which is saying something considering he just went up against a dragon.'

"Harry, you brilliant!" Hermione came tearing into the tent, gasping when she found him with a large gash in his shoulder with blood running freely out of it. "Oh my God? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. I've had worse, you know me," Harry grinned at her.

Neville and Ron were following close behind her, both looking like they wanted to say something. Neville looked pale, and slightly on edge, while Ron, who was also pale, looked at odds with himself.

"You alright Neville, you look like you've been petrified," Harry laughed at his friends anxious attitude. A relived look crossed the boys face as he gave a chuckle at the joke. Neville crossed the small cubicle in a few steps, clapping Harry on his good shoulder, giving him a slight nod in the process.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked, rather unkindly towards the red haired boy, who was still hovering awkwardly in the cubicle door.

"Look, mate, I wanted to apologize," he said, a serious tone entering his voice as he did so. "I reckon you'd have to be mental in put your own name in. I know I've been a giant git the past few weeks."

"Now you want to apologize? It took watching me face a dragon to make you believe me instead of my word?" Harry really did not mean to be sounding like such a prat at the moment, but all his anger had reignited in his body. Plus, Ron had it coming with the way he had been acting. "Took you long enough to realize I don't want to be doing this? That I don't want any of this attention?"

"I'm sorry Harry. I don't know what else to say," Ron looked rather ashamed of himself as he hung his head, looking down at the tent floor.

"Give me one reason why I should forgive you," Harry said calmly, his anger at his friend having dropped several degrees.

"In all honesty, you shouldn't forgive me. I know I screwed up big time. I don't blame you for hating me," Ron replied, still looking down rather than at Harry. That is, until he saw a hand appear in front of him. Harry had gotten up from the cot and walked over to Ron, sticking his hand out to shake.

"You've been my best mate for going on four years now. I'm still not entirely happy with you, but I forgive you. It'll just take awhile to get back in my good books ok?"

"Thanks Harry," Ron said, a smile creeping on his face as he shook his best friend's hand. When they let go, Hermione looked ready to shed tears while Neville began walking back out of the tent.

"Oy, Nev!" Harry called after him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Oh, I just thought," he mumbled out, looking down just as Ron had. "You know, now that Ron is back you wouldn't…"

"Neville, get your ass back in here. You're part of the team now."

A wide smile erupted on Neville's face as he walked back into the tent cubicle happily. Following right behind him was Madame Pomfrey.

"Everyone out, I need to fix Potter's arm. Again."

"Nevermind then. But I meant it Nev, you're part of the gang now."

* * *

Daphne slipped out of the stands and made her way to the medical tent that Potter had been whisked into. She found Longbottom, Granger, and Weasley waiting outside. Why was Weasley there?

"Why are you here?" Weasley asked her, looking a mix of confusion and apprehensive.

"None of your business Weasley," she replied coolly and honestly. It really was none of his business what she was doing. "But if you must be nosy, I plan on entering this tent."

"Why?" Daphne rolled her eyes at this.

"You ask a lot of questions Weasley. If you must know, I'm going to go kill Potter since the dragon failed, right Longbottom?" Daphne kept a straight face, but gave a small wink towards Longbottom, who looked like he wanted to laugh and cower at the same time. Weasley and Granger looked horrified as Daphne began walking towards the tent entrance again.

"Madame Pomfrey said we couldn't be in the tent right now," Weasley finally recovered from her joke, one which he didn't seem to get, No surprise.

"Watch me," Daphne replied smoothly, breezing past the three Gryffindors.

She paused for a moment when she entered the tent, trying to figure out which cubicle was Potter's, when she heard a dead give-away.

"Ow!"

"Oh come now Potter, don't be a baby! In the past three years, you've been in my wing probably a dozen times over. You can't mean to tell me a little a little dittany is that bad."

"Yeah, you remember that time when I came in with no bones in my arm? That was an awful visit. Except seeing you of course," Daphne heard him reply cheekily.

"Flattery won't make the dittany burn less Potter. Now put your shirt back on so I can put your arm in a sling for now. Then you can go get your scores. But you need to come see me for the next few days for more dittany."

Daphne watched as Madame Pomfrey walk back out of the cubicle, so she took her opening and slipped in behind her. She walked in to see Potter slowly put on his shirt, a distinctive cut still on a shoulder and arm. She tried to look away from the skinny boy as he did so.

'Three years of Quidditch training and conditioning clearly did Potter some good,' she thought before she could help it. She ignored herself. Could you blame her? This was Potter we were talking about! She tried to convince herself, but was having slight problems as she felt the temperature rise steadily. She tried to ignore this too.

"Well, at least I know you listen to me enough to follow my advice."

Potter, who had not noticed her walk in and was currently lost and tangled inside his own shirt, toppled off the cot in surprise. He gave an audible groan as he landed on his still slightly injured shoulder. Potter, with his no doubt brilliant navigating skills, struggled in his shirt for a moment before his head popped out of the neck hole.

"Smooth Potter," Daphne said as she crossed her arms, still standing in the cubicle doorway. "How can you take on a dragon, but can't find your way of a shirt?"

"It's a talent. Everyone can put on a shirt fine, but let's see you take on a dragon," a slight grin crept across his face as he sat back down on the cot. "So why are you here?"

"I was in the neighborhood." She replied nonchalantly.

"I'm sure that's it. Admit it, you were worried about me."

"Pshh, as if. Why would I be worried about you Potter?"

"That's usually what people do when they see their friend in a life or death situation."

"Just because I said I believe you in the Charms room the other day doesn't necessarily make us friends Potter."

He was about to retort when Madame Pomfrey came bustling back into his cubicle. Taking the opportunity while Potter was getting a sling put on his arm, Daphne slipped out the door and walked out the tent.

"Oi!" she heard as she walked back into the stands.

"Shut it Weasley," she called back, not even bothering to look over her shoulder.'

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**A/N: Good God, I am so tired. I've been at my new job for about a week now and I've been working about 12 hours a day since I started. My shifts are random throughout the day, so my sleeping patterns have gone to Hell. That plus I'm now living in a time zone 6 hours behind the one I was living in, so in my mind, time is so messed up. It's like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff. But new job is really fun and all, just exhausting. I was able to work on this chapter throughout the last week whenever I had a chance, which is one of the reasons it shifted POV a couple times.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know I was pretty lazy with the flying and dragon scene, but I've been so tired this week and I had planned on basically keeping it the same idea from the book. If you would a more descriptive version of the scene, feel free to go reread it in Goblet of Fire. **

**In other news, I shall try to post about once a week or so. My work schedule changes frequently, but I will update when I can. So until then, enjoy, and feel free to leave a review, send me a PM, or none of the above. Whatever helps you sleep at night.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Of the small list of things I own, Harry Potter definitely isn't one of them.**

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It was the mightiest of duels. Perhaps the greatest since Dumbledore had defeated Grindelwald. Three wizards locked in combat; it was as if time had ceased to exist. None of the three wizards would budge, could not let their guard down, could not show weakness. There was no force in the world that could stop this epic clash, except for one.

"For the love of...you three! Pay attention!"

Minerva McGonagall's stern voice echoed around the classroom, causing the sudden ceasefire between Harry, Neville, and Ron, who had been having a sword fight using Fred and George's fake wands. Ron dropped his fake wand, which had turned into a tin parrot, while Neville, whose wand was now a pair of white briefs, tried to hide his and play it off by using the briefs to scratch the back of his head. Probably not his best idea. Meanwhile, Harry jumped and the rubber haddock in his hand soared wildly across the room, landing on Dean's head.

Upon hearing what Professor McGonagall had to say, Harry wished he could go back to the fake wand fighting, or hell, go back to facing the dragon. He still couldn't believe he had gotten through the First Task, not only that but he was still alive and breathing. Even more unbelievable was that he had somehow tied with Viktor Krum for first place. To top it off, Ron had also managed to pull his head out his ass finally. While things between the two friends were nowhere near what they used to be, Ron had certainly been trying to hopefully return the tight knit friendship it had once been. His first course of action was allowing Harry to use Pig to send a letter to Sirius detailing the events of the First Task. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville, who had been informed of the situation, had set off straight for the Owlery after getting Harry's score.

But no. Now Harry had to figure out how to get a date for this lame ball so he wouldn't look like a complete idiot in front of everyone. He would gladly go another round with the horntail, but unfortunately, that didn't seem like an option. He didn't even have a clue as to who to ask. To make matters worse, Professor McGonagall had pulled him aside afterwards and stressed the need for him to have a date since the champions opened the ball with the first dance. Just wonderful. Also, he had no idea how to dance. That was certainly going to make things much easier.

It had barely been a day since the Yule Ball was announced and there suddenly seemed to be twice as many girls at Hogwarts. Everywhere he went, Harry just found groups of giggling girls.

"Why do they have to move in packs?" Harry wondered aloud. Flanked by Ron and Neville, they had just walked past a group of Hufflepuff girls. "And I mean, if you knew who you wanted to ask, how are you supposed to get one on their own?"

"You guys got any idea on who you wanna go with?" Ron asked his companions as they entered the great hall. Neville turned slightly red and shook his head vigorously. Harry simply shrugged.

In all honesty, he didn't really know who to ask. His first thought was Cho Chang, but given how popular she was and how awkward with girls he was, the likelihood seemed astronomical. Perhaps it wouldn't be too hard simply because he was a champion and all. Ron seemed to have read his mind.

"Look mate, you just beat a dragon. If anyone can find a date it's you," he said as the trio sat down at the Gryffindor table beside Dean and Seamus.

Neville nodded in agreement, before adding "Plus you're the Boy Who Lived. Girls will be lining up to go with you."

No sooner had these works left his lips than did a Hufflepuff girl walked up to him and ask him to go to the ball with her.

"Umm," Harry was flabbergasted. He was trying his best not to be rude really, but he was so shocked that his mind just blanked. He just blinked at the poor girl. "Umm.."

"Very smooth Harry," Seamus began howling with laughter once the girl had walked away, seemingly getting at Harry's lack of answer to mean no.

"You should have seen your face!" roared Dean. He face suddenly mimicked surprised, yet slightly stupid look which could rival Crabbe and Goyle. At this, Ron and Neville both lost it.

"I hate all of you guys. I need new friends."

Harry tried to continue his lunch in peace. A plan which was doomed to fail. Barely five minutes later, two Ravenclaw girls approached him confidently.

"Hey Harry, want to go to the ball with me?" They both asked in unison. They had to have planned and practiced this. Wait, did they both just ask him? His question answered itself when both girls took their eyes off him and started hard at each other. Oh boy…

"I was going to ask Harry to the ball!" one girl shrieked at her friend. "You were just supposed to walk with me."

"No, I was going to ask him and you were supposed to come with me!" the second girl retorted.

Suddenly, they were going at it, two Ravenclaw girls exchanging words in front of the Gryffindor boys. Ron looked amused yet slightly confused while Dean and Seamus were using everything they had not to start laughing again. Neville, who looked stunned, began turning a shade of red at some of the words the girls were using. Harry sighed, rolled his eyes, and rested his face on his hand. When it became clear the girls were not leaving anytime soon, he decided to take action.

"I'm leaving," Harry told his friends as he got up from the table. He simply moved past the two girls, who were still arguing with each other, and walked straight past both of them. He had no idea where he was going, he just kept walking, trying to put distance from himself and those two mental Ravenclaws. He made it into the Entrance Hall before someone stopped him.

"Hey Harry," they called over. "Wait up,"

Harry, who wasn't paying attention to who called him out, thinking it was one, if not both, of the Ravenclaw girls, didn't bother turning around. "Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'm not interested in going to the ball with you."

"Thanks Harry. You really know how to hurt a guy's feelings," Harry heard him laugh. Turning, he saw Cedric standing behind him. Harry felt the color rise in his face and awkwardly laughed.

"Sorry bout that. Did you see those two girls in the Great Hall? Completely mental."

"Yeah, I saw that. Seems like all the girls around here have lost it since announcing the ball, eh?"

"That's an understatement," Harry nodded in confirmation.

"I take it you don't have a date yet?" to which Harry began shaking his head.

"Nope, you?"

"Yeah, I just asked Cho this morning," Cedric gave a slightly triumphant grin.

"Cho Chang?" 'Of course it was Cho Chang', he told himself. 'How many other Cho's go to this school?' Well, it's not like he would have had much success if he had asked her anyways.

"Yeah, you know from Ravenclaw," oh did he know. "You work out anything about the egg yet?"

"Not unless the Second Task has something to do with a screaming egg-induced headache."

"So yours wails also? I was beginning to think just mine did that. I thought they had given us different clues, so we HAD to work it out for ourselves, you know?"

"Nope, mine definitely wails. That's about all it does really."

"Well, I'll let you know if I make any progress with it"

"You don't have to do that," Harry said at once. Which was true, Cedric didn't have to help him at all.

"I would've coughed it against the dragon if you hadn't warned me about it. I owe you one mate."

"Cedric really. It's no big…"

"It is Harry," he interrupted him. "You're a friend. If I can help you, I certainly intend on it."

"Thanks," was all Harry could say. He seemed to be at a loss for words quite a lot recently.

"Not a problem. But listen, I'm supposed to be in Transfiguration right now, I gotta go," he bumped his fist against Harry's arm before heading off towards the Transfiguration room.

Harry mindlessly found his way to Charms class after talking with Cedric. He liked Cedric, really he did, but out of all the girls at the school, why did he have to ask the one Harry had been contemplating asking. Who did he want to ask? This question haunted him all day until he somehow wounded up in the Gryffindor Common Room that evening, laying on the couch by the fire, egg laying on his chest.

"It's ok Ron, it doesn't matter," he heard Ginny's voice coming from the portrait hole. Looking up, Harry saw Ginny leading Ron into an armchair next to Harry.

"What the bloody hell happened to him?" It was a fair question, Ron looked like he was about to be sick. "Was it something Gred and Forge gave him?"

"Err, no. He just asked Fleur Delacour to the ball," she explained calmly.

"He _what_?" Surely his ears deceived him. That or Ginny and Ron were playing quite the joke on him. Amusing if true.

"Yeah. He asked her in the Entrance Hall. People were everywhere. She was standing there, talking to Cedric Diggory, and he just sort of shouted it at her," Harry, and no doubt Ginny, would have found this very amusing in any other situation. But they both silently agreed not to laugh or probably ever bring it up again for the sake of Ron.

"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron interjected spontaneously. "I've gone mental!"

"Why has Ron gone mental?" Hermione joined them by the fire, pushing Harry's legs off the couch to make room to sit down.

"He just asked Fleur Delacour to the ball in front of half the school," Ginny explained yet again.

"All the good ones taken Ron?" she smirked. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, isn't she?"

"Oi Hermione," Ron looked up, as if he just had the world's greatest epiphany. "You're a girl, aren't you?"

Ginny and Harry both knew where Ron was headed with this and saw immediately he had taken the completely wrong road to that path to get there. Knowing the seriousness and no doubt consequences of saying something like that to a girl, one you've been friends with for four years, Ginny buried her face in her hands, shaking her head and fearing for her brother. Even Harry, who was quite the opposite of knowing how women work and how to woo them, knew that that was entirely the wrong thing to say.

"Oh Ron, _noooo_," Harry tried his best to stress the no and to cut Ron off before the situation got worse, but too late. The damage was done.

"Oh well spotted," Hermione replied. You could almost see the acid dripping off her words.

"You can go with me or Harry couldn't you? We both need partners."

"I've already got a partner for the ball, thank you very much."

"What?" Ron seemed startled by this news. "No you don't."

"Just because it's taken you nearly four years to realize, doesn't seem someone else has spotted that I'm a girl."

"Ok, I get it," Ron might as well have picked up a spade and began digging his own hole. "We know you're a girl, now will you come with one of us?"

"I've already told you!" she stood, quite menacingly for Hermione, her face turning red. Was it from anger or embarrassment? "I'm going with someone already!"

And with that, she was storming away towards the girl's dormitory. Wishing he could anywhere else, Harry saw the stunned look on Ron's face before he slowly opened up mouth, and began inserting his foot instantly.

"She's got to be lying," he said at once, the stunned look leaving his face.

"No, she's not," Ginny muttered quietly. Ron looked like another great idea just formed in his head. Time to head for cover.

"Hey Ginny," he started, but was cut off almost at once.

"Ronald Billius Weasley, I swear that if you point out that I, your _sister_, am a girl, I will jinx you to oblivion and disown you as a brother."

'Note to self,' Harry told himself. 'Never, under any circumstance, attempt to cross Ginny Weasley.'

"Merlin, I know you're a girl. I was just going to suggest that you and Harry could go together. I'll just figure something out."

"I can't," it was Ginny's turn to turn scarlet. "I'm going with, well with Neville."

"Neville? Really?" This seemed new to Ron. Harry couldn't blame him for acting surprised, this was news to him as well.

"I thought that since Neville is a nice guy and I wouldn't be able to go otherwise, I should accept." She stood as she finished her sentence. "I think I'm going to bed now."

"Women mate. They're mental," Ron said knowingly to Harry as soon as Ginny was out of earshot.

Harry just rolled his eyes. Yes, clearly it was the _women_ who were the mental ones.

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**Before I say anything else, I apologize for the delay in uploading and for the short chapter. I've been seriously working my ass off with this new job and last week I didn't even have access to my laptop at all due to a week long training. On the bright side, I might get promoted soon, so I will be working 8-9 hours a day as opposed to 12-15. I will definitely try my best to post again soon. **

**I also just wanted to say that I really appreciate everyone who follows/favorites/reviews this. I never thought there would be so many people who enjoy this. You guys are seriously awesome. **

**On another note, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's not very long, but it's intended to set the stage for next chapter, which is a bit longer. I'll be honest, I wasn't 100% happy with this chapter, but A. I really wanted to post something since it's been awhile and B. as I've said, it's not so much just filler as an attempt to set up the Yule Ball Arc. ****I said before that things will be fairly canon when it comes to the main events, such as the three tasks, but starting next chapter things will begin to deviate a bit more from canon. Again, I will try my best to update soon and I hope everyone enjoyed chapter 8.**

**Until next time my friends.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I'm too tired at the moment to come up with some stupid wanna-be clever way of saying that I don't own Harry Potter. So there ya go.**

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Ron was definitely wrong. Women were not the mental ones. He, Harry, was clearly the one losing his marbles. It had been a week since the announcement of the Yule Ball. Harry had been asked to go to the ball by about twelve girls so far, all of which he kept telling no. He had no reason as to why, it wasn't like there was anything wrong with any of them. Well, except maybe the girl who had more facial hair than he did, but perhaps that had been a charm gone wrong. So clearly he was just going insane. It wasn't like he had any idea who he wanted to go with anyways.

It was the last Care of Magical Creatures class of the term. There were only about ten skrewts left, which would have been normally been great news. Except that they were now six feet long, which, when combined with the blasting-ends, stingers and suckers, and their powerful armor and legs made them a force to be reckoned with. For the first time since its announcement, Harry could safely say that the furthest thing from his mind was the ball.

They lesson was to try and get nail them into crates to see if they hibernated, which didn't seem like a completely terrible lesson. Only problem was that the skrewts did not appreciate being nailed into boxes whatsoever. That was when everything went downhill.

"Don' panic!" Hagrid was soon yelling to the class, many of whom had fled into Hagrid's cabin. "No one panic!"

Harry and Neville were currently tying up one of the last skrewts and managed to get it into a box while Dean, Seamus, and Ron were wrestling with one of the larger ones. Hermione, meanwhile, was nursing the burns and cuts of Lavender and Parvati. Blaise Zabini and Tracey Davis had just finished helping Daphne get yet another skrewt into a box. Harry, noticing that there was only one skrewt left, began feeling overjoyed that they were almost done with this nightmare. He felt his luck deflate an instant later when he was which skrewt was left. The skrewt that Harry and Daphne had been assigned was slowing and menacingly advancing on him and Neville. This skrewt must have been the alpha male or something, seeing as how it was noticeably larger and more powerful than the others. Harry and Neville began shooting sparks at it, as Hagrid was afraid of them harming the skrewt. Because that just would've been a real tragedy.

As Hagrid was helping Harry, Neville, and Ron force the last skrewt away was when Rita Skeeter had shown up. She had begun asking Hagrid about the skrewts while the class collected their things, they had even agreed on an interview. Harry could see no way of this ending good. This was why he decided to hang around for a minute and hopefully convince Hagrid of changing his mind.

"Just trust me Hagrid, she's going to turn everything you say and twist it into something completely farfetched. Don't you remember the article she wrote about me?" Harry found himself telling his large friend.

"Yeh mean yer don' still cry bout yer mum and dad?" Hagrid asked, a slight smile coming out from his beard.

"What? No, and I'm also not still twelve years old."

"Hmm, I coulda sworn yeh just turned twelve," his deep laugh rumbled out.

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny _professor_," he tried his best to lay heavy emphasis and sarcasm onto the last word. He looked around and saw that Hermione, Neville and Ron were already heading back up to the castle along with several of his classmates. That was when he noticed Daphne still near the cabin, slowly walking back up to the castle with Zabini and Davis, but slightly lagging behind them.

"So yeh gonna go to this ball thing?" Hagrid asked, seemingly out of the blue. Great, the ball. Just what he wanted reminding of.

"I have to, as a champion I have to open the ball with a dance." Harry sighed dejectedly.

"Yeh got a date then?"

"Nope."

"Well, yeh find one 'Arry, no problem. Yer a champion an' a dragon fighter now," he said confidently.

"Let's hope so. Well Hagrid, I gotta run. Trelawney has to predict my death again. I'll come visit over the weekend more than likely."

Hagrid muttered a goodbye and something about Trelawney being an crazy old bat. Or perhaps something about a cat, Harry wasn't sure which. Deciding it was probably the former, Harry slung his bag over his shoulder, released a deep sigh and slowly began making his way back to the rather, albeit rather reluctantly. He still needed to get this ball date conundrum situated. Though, as to how was still a mystery to him. That was when it hit him. Harry was so lost in thought that he had walked right into the front doors leading into the Entrance Hall. Looking around frantically, he felt a wave of relief when he didn't see anyone. He swung the door open and tried to casually walk inside as though nothing had just happened.

"Potter, did you just walk into the front doors?"

Son of a bitch. Out of everyone in this bloody school, it just had to be Daphne Greengrass to see that. Merlin, did the Gods hate him or something. He looked around to see her casually leaning against the wall between the doors and the entrance to the Great Hall. What was she, waiting around to catch him making a fool of himself now?

"No, that'd be a stupid idea."

"Well, it wouldn't be your first. Something tells me it definitely won't be your last either, not by a long shot."

"Gee, you really know how to make a guy feel special Daphne."

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Just one of my many talents."

"Do you need something, or do you just like waiting around to see if I'll make a fool of myself?" he asked, a minuscule hit of annoyance in his tone.

"I don't need to wait around to know that you make a fool of yourself," Harry sighed and rolled his eyes, something he seemed to be doing a lot more frequently. Giving a slight laugh at his response, she nonchalantly added, "I was just wondering when."

He paused for a few seconds, coming to the conclusion that there had to be more. When it became apparent that that was all she had to say, he retorted with a "when what?"

"When you were going to ask me to the Yule Ball is all."

"Sorry, didn't catch that. Run it by me again." He had heard perfectly fine, in all honesty. Perhaps his ears were playing a trick on him, or perhaps she was. Best to check.

"When were you going to ask me to the ball," her trademark grin appeared as she crossed her arms in a satisfactory way.

Oh Merlin he was right. That was what she had said. Well, this was...unexpected to say the least. Harry just needed to clarify one last time to make sure he wasn't going mad or anything. You know, just to be positive.

"You want to go to the ball?" he paused, trying to emphasis his need to be completely positive about what she was saying. "With me?"

"Aww, thanks Potter, you are so sweet," she smiled at him. Not one of her sly and mischievous grins, but an actual smile. It really emphasized her crystal blue eyes and dazzling white teeth. "I hope you know that I had to turn down a few guys already, but I don't think that I can turn down your invitation to the ball. I accept."

Oh cool she accepted. Wait, what the bloody hell had just happened?

"Wait, what?" he couldn't help but ask. He was so confused right now. What was going on?

"Yes, I shall grace you with my company at the Yule Ball. Oh, well I have to get to Ancient Runes. Make sure to meet me in the Entrance Hall at eight o'clock for the ball. Later Potter."

And she was gone. It took him a full minute to move from his spot in the Entrance Hall and continue his journey to Divination, all while his mind made an attempt to process what had just happened.

'What just...I don't even...did that really just...how had that...' he mind was just unable to finish any thoughts. It was like the second hand on a clock was stuck in his mind, trying its best to get to the next mark, but just not quite making it. 'What...I swear...had that...really...only me...I am so...oh screw it!'

On the bright side to the mass confusion taking place in his brain, he no longer had to worry about finding a partner for this ball. Was it too much to ask for another dragon to fight? At least that made more sense than females do.

"As I gazed into my crystal ball last night," Trelawney spook mystically, Lavender and Parvati clinging to every word. "I saw a most dreadful thing."

"Ohh Professor," Lavender whispered excitedly. "What was it?

"It was a dark figure, fighting a monstrous creature. It was told that one who was born in late summer under the sign of Leo has just overcome a challenge..."

Harry, who for all intent and purposes, was still preoccupied with what had just happened with Daphne had finally caught on to Trelawney's words and rolled his eyes. He gave a lazy yawn as she turned her sights to him.

"Has just overcome a challenge, but shall not let his guard down. For I then saw death!" The was audible gasps from the awe struck girls before Trelawney continued. "That's right class. Death came and took the young hero." She finished dramatically, all while gazing at Harry.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Harry commented, slightly louder than he had anticipated. Lavender and Parvati glared at him. "Let's hope that monstrous creature wasn't dragon or I might be in some trouble," he added facetiously.

"Oh, but it was a dragon my dear," Trelawney spoke with an all knowing air about her.

"Looks like I'm doomed. Again. Well guys," Harry looked to Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus, who were all shaking with silent laughter. "I have to say it was nice knowing you and I hope my date to the ball won't be too cross if I don't make it. Although, I do feel death is an adequate excuse to stand someone up, don't you?

That, Harry was sure, was no doubt the reason they were assigned so much homework over the holidays.

The holidays began, effectively ending the term. It was quite rare for there to be more people that stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, as most of the students wish to visit their families. Now, however, it seemed that everyone in fourth year and above was now staying over the break. It also became apparent just how many girls Hogwarts seemed to have. They were just...everywhere! Harry was sure they were able to apparate around the castle, or perhaps they could pop out of the ground like daisies. At least now he had a good reason for telling girls no when they asked him to the ball. Harry found it odd that so many girls wanted him as a date when they had all been on his case just a few weeks prior, several of which had even been wearing "Cedric Diggory" badges at the first task.

"Look mate," Ron was saying a few days after the start of break. "You need a date to the ball since you're a champion and all. You can't keep telling girls no all the time. What was wrong with the last girl from Hufflepuff? She was quite good looking."

"I already have a date, didn't I tell you?" This was a lie. Harry had certainly not told Ron he had a date, and most definitely who he was going with. While Harry was not ashamed to be going with Daphne at all, on the contrary he felt extremely lucky, he was not sure how Ron would react. Coming from a family of all Gryffindors, Ron had a slight bias for people in Slytherin, much more than himself or Hermione.

"What?" Ron look flabbergasted at the news. "Who're you going with?"

"You'll see at the ball," he replied simply, not knowing what else to say. "Surprise," he added for good measure.

"Fair enough. You ever learn who Hermione is going with?" His sly attempt at working that question in was not sly in the least, though Harry figured it best not to point that out.

"Nope, she says it's her business."

"Hey, hang on," Ron's mouth fell open. He looked like he was concentrating hard until a look of realization dawned on his face. Ron must be under the impression that he figured out that 2 plus 2 equals four. "Are you and Hermione..." he let the question hang.

Ron's must have forgotten to carry the decimal or something, because in this scenario, 2 plus 2 definitely did not equal 4.

"What? No, don't be thick. I'm definitely not going with Hermione to the ball. That's just, no."

"I didn't realize that it was such a horrible thing to take me to a ball Harry," came the feminine voice from behind him. Harry looked horrified, he could practically feel the color rise in his face.

"No, Hermione. I didn't mean it like that," he began backpedaling faster than he could ever remember doing. "All I meant was I was trying to explain to Ron that you and I aren't going to the ball together."

"Relax Harry, I was kidding," she grinned at him. Relief ran over him, drenching him at though he had just stepped under a waterfall. "Besides, why did Ron think we were going together?"

"Harry here wouldn't tell me who his date was either," Ron added as he gazed across the common room towards Lavender and Parvati. "Does Lavender or Parvati still need dates?"

"No, they're going with Seamus and Dean. Why?" Hermione answered.

"I still need a date, hold that thought," he said as he hopped up off the couch and confidently strolled over to the two girls.

"I hope he doesn't think he can convince them to ditch Dean or Seamus," Harry joked. "What do you think he's asking them?"

"No idea. So who's this mysterious girl your taking the ball?" Hermione, who usually wasn't one for gossip, looked like she was fit to burst waiting to ask.

Harry struggled internally on whether or not he should tell her. On one hand, she was much less likely to blow it out of proportion, unlike Ron. On the other hand, Hermione still had not told him who she was going with and he was still not sure how she would react to his news. Back on the first hand, perhaps she could shed some light on how girls minds worked.

"Ok, but don't tell anyone yet," Harry said in an undertone. "I'm not sure how people are going to react yet."

"How bad could it be? It's not like you're going to the ball with a Slytherin or anything," she laughed quietly, but stopped upon seeing the look on his face and added "right, Harry?"

"She's not like other Slytherins Hermione," he began explaining immediately. "She actually believe me about the tournament and everything."

"Daphne Greengrass?" Hermione asked, although it was more of a statement than anything. Harry simply stared at her for a moment.

"Uh, yeah," he replied, slightly unsure as to how Hermione knew. Then again, she was the smartest in the year. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "How did you..?"

"Come on Harry, you're my best friend. I've seen the ways you look at her during Care of Magical Creatures. And Potions. And when you pass her in the hall. And during meal times when you think no one is looking," she began explaining as though it was as simple as the snitch is golden. "And I've seen her do the same to you."

"So you're ok with it?" Harry slowly asked. He felt as though he were edging out onto a thinly frozen-over lake, just waiting for it to crack underneath him.

"Do you trust her Harry?" For such a simple question, it made Harry think.

Did he trust Daphne? Did he have a whole lot of reason to trust her? Probably not. Did he know her that well? Honestly, not really. Did she believe him about the tournament? Well, she said she does and he wanted to believe her. Was she attractive? Most definitely. How that last one comes into play, Harry wasn't quite sure, but it couldn't hurt right?

"I'm still getting to know her," he reasoned with himself as he calmly explained. He stared into the common room fire as if hoping to see Sirius pop in again. "But from what I know of her, yes I do."

"Then I trust your judgment," Hermione nodded in accordance with her words. "If you think you can trust her then I won't judge her because she's in Slytherin. When did you ask her?"

This question puzzled Harry, much more than it should. Mainly because he wasn't even sure how the asking of the ball dates had even gone. It wasn't like she had tricked him into asking her, well not entirely. The more he thought about it, the more Harry was glad he had sort of asked Daphne. For one, he doubted she had accepted because he was a champion. Also, it was someone he felt fairly comfortable conversing with. Although, he had to admit, he sensed a lot of sarcastic remarks and comments in his future. Trelawney would be proud, even though it didn't seem like a difficult prediction to make for anyone who had actually talked to the Slytherin girl.

"Just before Divination, as we were walking back into the Entrance Hall."

"Well, guess who is about to possibly get a date for the ball?" called a triumphant Ron as he walked back over to them. Harry had to force himself not to start laughing at the mocking look on Hermione's face.

"How did you manage that if Lavender and Parvati both have dates?" Hermione asked.

"Parvati said her sister Padma doesn't have a date, so she will talk to her for me," Ron replied simply.

"So you're getting her to do the work for you?" Hermione looked scandalized.

"Makes my life easier," Ron shrugged.

"You're unbelievable."

Harry had a sudden feeling that this ball was going to be more trouble than it was worth. He couldn't see it end well for them, or at least Ron. He wasn't sure about Hermione since he didn't know who she was going with. As for himself, Harry felt confident that it was going to go one of two ways for him, either spectacular or a complete disaster. He suddenly prayed for the first option to come true.

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**A/N: Well here ya go. I tried to write, edit, and post this chapter as quickly as I could since I got so much flak about the last one being 'too canon.' When, ya know, I even wrote in the Authors Note that it was going to be more canon and that would change more in THIS chapter, but that's ok. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I still enjoy hearing everyone's opinion and I respect everyone's opinion.**

**On another happier note, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Work is still kicking my ass, but I spent pretty much all my free time, which is limited as is, working on this chapter for you guys. The next chapter is in the works and will be the Yule Ball. I'm a 21 year old guy and am a terrible romance writer, so there will probably be some pretty cheesy parts in there and for any of my readers who care about this sort of thing, I won't go into an extremely long description of Daphne's dress etc. etc. As I said, I'm a 21 year old guy and I don't know shit about dresses and the like. But anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter and drop me a review/PM if you so choose. You're choice really.**

**Peace out my Brethren **


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I haven't magically obtained the rights to anything, especially Harry Potter. What a bummer.**

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It had seemed only a handful of days ago that Harry had sort of asked Daphne to the ball when he looked up and discovered himself in front of the mirror, having just put on his dress robes for the ball. He straightened part of the collar and checked his watch, which read 7:43. He was supposed to meet Daphne in the Entrance Hall at eight, but decided it was best to be a few minutes early, just in case. Merlin knows if he shows up after her, even if it was before eight then he could potentially get in trouble for being late. Girls worked in strange ways.

Harry casually leaned against the stone wall and observed everyone else as they tried to find their partner amongst the crowd as he tried to remember what Hermione had taught him about dancing. He saw Dean and Seamus escorting Parvati and Lavender down the stairs. Harry met eyes with both boys and nodded, which they replied with sly grins. Neville and Ginny soon followed their housemates across the Entrance Hall. Ginny pretended to make no notice of Neville when he nearly tripped, though her face did turn a slight scarlet color.

Harry glanced at his watch again. It was now 7:58 with still no sign of Daphne anywhere. He tried his best not to notice the fact that all of the other champions were already with their partners. Cedric with Cho, Fleur with Roger Davies, and Krum with an attractive witch Harry didn't know, though there was an air of familiarity about her. He heard the castle clock chime eight times and tried his best to overcome the slight anxious feeling he was getting in his stomach. Professor McGonagall appeared to make sure they were all ready. She cast a nervous look at Harry and politely asked him about his partner.

"I don't know. She said she would be here at eight."

"Sorry, got held up."

Harry glanced over to where the voice was coming from and felt all the air leave his lungs. He knew he was staring and he didn't care one bit. Daphne was dressed in a sapphire blue dress which went perfectly with her crystal blue eyes. It wasn't overly revealing, but with only one strap, it did show off a decent amount of her slightly tan skin. Her dirty blonde hair was slightly wavy and flowed down just past her shoulders. It was at that moment that Harry felt all the cocoons in his stomach break open as there were now hundreds of butterflies flying around. Harry was aware of one thing and one thing only in that instance. Daphne Greengrass was beauty.

"Geez Potter, didn't anyone teach you that it was rude to stare?" she put her hands on her hips and grinned jokingly before she gracefully floated over to his side. Harry opened his mouth, but his throat suddenly became very dry and he lost all train of thought. "I suppose we could stand in silence in the Entrance Hall all night while you ogle me."

'Say something you imbecile!' Harry told himself. 'You're acting like a brainless git.'

'You really should say something Harry.' Why did this voice sound like Hermione? 'Tell her she looks pretty.'

'No, tell her she looks smoking!' Apparently his inner Sirius was also giving his opinion.

'Merlin no, don't tell me that!' huffed another voice, this one sounding exactly like the girl who was currently eyeing him expectantly. 'For the love of Merlin Potter, just say I look nice.'

"I look nice!" Harry blurted out.

'Way to muck it up Potter,' said the inner Daphne.

'Very Smooth young blood,' added the inner Sirius, which was also barking with laughter.

Daphne just raised an eyebrow at him, hands back on her hips.

"Did I really just say that?" Harry said horrified as he covered part of his face with a hand.

"Yes. Yes you did. Would you like to remove your foot from your mouth and try again?" she asked him. It was in a rather serious manner, but still had that slight sarcastic and joking feel to it, as did most things Daphne.

"Yes please."

"Alright proceed."

This time, Harry did the intelligent thing and ignored all inner voices that did not sound like him. Removing his hand from his face and his metaphorical foot from mouth, his green eyes found her blue ones.

"You look great," he heard himself say. It sounded rather awkward to him, but that was perhaps because his experience with girls outside Hermione was extremely limited.

"Thanks Potter," she grinned up at him. "I suppose you're not too bad yourself.

"Alright everyone," Professor McGonagall interrupted. As she began ushering everyone into a line, she added, "Line-up everyone."

Fleur and her partner were heading the line, followed by Krum and Cedric with their partners with Harry and Daphne bringing up the rear. Applause rang through the Great Hall when the four champions entered with their partners. Harry quickly glanced around as he escorted Daphne to the front of the hall. Many heads were turned his direction with shocked looks when they saw him and who he was escorting. Harry did his absolute best not to crack a smile and laugh when he saw just how scandalized Malfoy looked. That combined with Parkinson's mouth hanging open and her eyes the size of dinner plates. Daphne followed his gaze and smirked at their reactions as she tightened her hold on Harry's arm. Harry couldn't help but notice that Dean, Seamus and Neville were grinning and eyeing Daphne with interest. He could almost imagine how many questions would be asked in their dormitory later that night. Sitting at the same table as them was Padma and Ron, in which the latter was determinately looking anywhere else but at the champions. Harry tried to ignore this.

Upon reaching the tables set up at the front of the Entrance Hall for the champions and staff, Harry only saw two tables with room for him and Daphne. One of them had Percy Weasley, who waved at Harry and motioned for him to sit next to him. Pretending that he thought Percy had just waved at him, Harry waved back politely and immediately guided Daphne to the other table with open seats. Harry helped Daphne into her seat and looked up to see that Krum and his date were the other two sitting at their table.

"Hey Harry," Harry heard Hermione's voice as he settled into his own chair. His head shooting up, Harry glanced around mildly confused. That was when he learned why Krum's partner had a familiar look to her.

"Hermione?" He tried, and failed spectacularly to make that not sound like a question. Harry also didn't do the best job at concealing his surprise either.

"Yeah! Hello Daphne, isn't it?" Hermione asked politely.

"I know you know who I am," Daphne laughed. "We have Ancient Runes together."

"Hey Viktor," Harry held out his hand to the Bulgarian, who shook it with a tight grip. "This is my date Daphne Greengrass."

Viktor took Daphne's hand when she offered it, bowing slightly and kissing it.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Da-vv-nee," Krum said to the Slytherin girl. Daphne couldn't help but grin at his attempt to pronounce her name. Clearly she didn't mind the slight mispronunciation as she made no attempt to correct him.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak when Dumbledore stood and made a small announcement before he began suddenly speaking to his plate. This confused Harry at first until he saw what looked like pork chops appear on his plate. That was when everyone else began speaking to their own plates, placing orders of whatever they desired. At first Harry thought they would be eating in silence and that it would be slightly awkward since he had never spoken to Krum before, who seemed the strong silent type. Harry, however, was quite wrong. Barely ten minutes later Harry, Hermione and Daphne all found themselves roaring with laughter at a story Krum was telling.

"And so ve see my manager heading straight for us and I vas not supposed to be out because I had a match the next day. So my comrade Dmitri pushes me into the alleyway outside of the pub and says to Vlad, "Quick, hide Viktor." So here comes Vlad to the rescue and vhips out his vand and points it at me," Viktor told them through his thick Bulgarian accent, holding up his fork for visual affect. "And the next thing I knew, I vas a duck!"

Harry, Hermione and Daphne all lost it at that part. Hermione looked like she was starting to cry from laughing so hard. Harry, meanwhile, was clutching his side and trying to catch his breath.

"No way!" Daphne managed to blurt out between laughter. "He turned you into a duck?"

"Oh yes! I vas a duck. At first, I vas very confused. I tried to say something to Vlad and it just came out as quacks! So here comes my manager and asked Dmitri and Vlad vhere I vas. Then he looks over and sees a duck start vaddling out of the alleyvay, just quacking avay. My comrades manage to convince him that I vas not there and that they had no clue vhere the duck came from. After he leaves they transform me back, except Vlad is not the best at transfiguration. Ve thought I vas back to normal, except vhen I tried to valk, I vas still valking duck-footed!" Krum finished, his heavy laugh filling the air around their table. "And I have been duck-footed ever since."

"Oh yeah!" Harry said through laughs, having just remembered. "I noticed that at the Quidditch World Cup. I was sitting in the top box when you walked through."

"You guys vere at the Vorld Cup?" Krum asked.

"Yes, Harry and I went with our friends family who had seats in the top box," Hermione explained. "Daphne, were you there?"

"Yeah, but of course our seats weren't as nice," she laughed. "We were sitting by the giant scoreboard."

"I gotta say Viktor, even though Bulgaria lost, you were awesome," Harry said to the Bulgarian. "That Wronski Feint was just brilliant."

"From vhat I saw at the First Task and from vhat Herm-own-ninny says, you seem to be quite the flyer yourself. Are you a quidditch player or just a good flyer?"

"I'm a seeker just like you. Youngest seeker at Hogwarts in a century," he added proudly.

"That's very impressive," said the Bulgarian, nodding in improvement. "Perhaps ve can fly together sometime?" He added hopefully.

"Oh definitely!" Harry blurted excitedly. "After watching you at the World Cup, I've been wanting to learn how to pull off the Wronski Feint just the right way, you know?"

"Between you and me, it's not as hard as it looks. It is all about timing," Viktor said, leaning into the table as though he didn't want to be overheard. "I'd be more than happy to show you comrade."

Harry had opened his mouth to respond when Dumbledore stood and announced that the Champions were to open the ball with a dance. He was vaguely aware of Cedric, Cho, Fleur and Roger all stand from their table and begin moving to the spot Dumbledore had cleared for dancing. Only when Hermione and Viktor stood also was Harry fully aware of what was about to do. Suddenly his mind was racing through all those damn dance steps Hermione had tried to teach him, and not remembering a bit of it.

"You look like you've been petrified Potter," Daphne whispered as Harry escorted her to the dance floor. "Dancing with me that bad?"

"It's not that," Harry muttered back. "Let's just say dancing isn't my strong suit."

"Are my feet about to hurt?" She asked as Harry took one of her hands and rather reluctantly put the other on her waist, as if she was going to bite his head off if he touched her.

"Probably."

The music started playing and they began moving. Harry was surprised when his body began moving out of memory and he found he didn't need to concentrate quite as hard on his lessons with Hermione. The song wasn't overly long, but Harry was glad that others, led by Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, joined in for the sole reason of getting the attention off of himself. He found that he actually didn't mind dancing with Daphne when everyone wasn't staring at them.

"I'm proud Potter," Daphne said when the song had ended. "You only stepped on my feet twice."

"I'm surprised I managed to do that good, to be honest."

More music filled the hall and they all began dancing again. The four of them danced for the first twenty minutes before Hermione demanded that they switch partners for at least one song so she could dance with Harry.

"And to think," she said to Harry as they danced. "Barely a week and a half ago, you were about as good and graceful at dancing as that dragon you faced would've been."

"Yeah yeah," Harry laughed casually. "How many times do I need to say thank you?"

"Hmm, about thirty seven times more," she laughed also, but was drowned out by the laughter off Viktor and Daphne, who were dancing next to them.

"No no I'm serious. Potter really did blow up! He was ranting about Merlin knows what and the Blast-Ended Skrewt we were supposed to be taking care of just shoots off and Potter just blows up behind it. I had to take him to the Hospital Wing afterwards." Daphne explained to the Bulgarian, both of whom were laughing, to which Harry groaned audibly.

"Why must you feel the need to retell this story?" Harry asked her as the dance finished. "And why must you get so much satisfaction from it?"

"You have to admit Potter, it's pretty funny," she grinned as Harry just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Vhy don't Harry and I get us drinks?" Viktor suggested after he had finally stopped laughing from the Skrewt story.

"Daphne and I can get us a table," Hermione said in response.

"Actually, do you mind if I go talk to my friend Tracey for a few minutes?" Daphne asked them, Harry more so than Hermione and Viktor.

"Yeah go ahead," Harry said as he and Viktor started walking into the crowd of students, beginning their beverage mission.

"So what do you think of Hogwarts compared to Durmstrang?" Harry asked casually. For someone so famous, Viktor seemed to down to earth. Then again, he himself was famous and was always told he was way too modest about it. Perhaps he and Viktor Krum had more in common than he initially thought.

"It is great!" he said with enthusiasm, and went on to explain how Durmstrang only had four floors and how awful the winters were. "You vould love it in spring and summer. There is so many lakes and mountains to fly around. I vould not have minded attending Hogvarts though. Durmstrang has such a bad reputation with the dark arts."

"I honestly didn't even know there were other magical schools until I saw how many international witches and wizards were at the Quidditch World Cup," Harry admitted as both men grabbed two bottles of butterbeer each. He scanned the area and saw Hermione sitting by Ron and Padma, motioning to Viktor with a butterbeer to show him.

"So how did you and Herm-own-ninny become such good friends?" Krum asked interestedly as they made their way back to where Ron and Hermione were at.

"Me and our friend Ron saved her from a mountain troll in our first year," Harry said nonchalantly. Upon seeing the incredulous look on Krum's face, Harry elaborated a little bit. "It's a long story, I'll have to tell you later." Krum nodded approvingly at this as they approached the table.

"Hey Ron, how's it going?" Harry asked as he took a seat next to his friend, politely adding, "Hi Padma."

"Vhere did Herm-own-ninny go?" Viktor asked nicely, but with a hint of confusion.

"No idea. Lost her, have you?" Ron spat. Viktor looked taken aback and glanced at Harry.

"Hey Viktor, why don't you look for Hermione and we can meet back at our table in a little bit?" Harry replied to Viktor's look, trying to defer the situation from whatever the problem was.

"Ok my friend. Ve vill see you in a bit," he answered with a nod before heading back to the champions table, butterbeer still clutched in his hands.

"What was that about?" Harry questioned his friend.

"I can't believe Hermione is hanging out with that git from Durmstrang," Ron glared at Viktor's retreating figure as though by doing this he would burn a hole through his back.

"Viktor's alright Ron. He's actually pretty nice and down to earth for an international Quidditch player."

"As if you have room to talk."

"Excuse me?" Harry said slowly.

"Are you even going to ask me to dance at all?" Padma interjected.

"Nope." Ron answered at once, causing Padma to get up and join her sister and Lavender with Dean and Seamus.

"What the bloody hell are you doing with her Harry?" Ron said once Padma was gone.

"Is there a problem with me taking Daphne to the ball?" Harry asked coolly. He was afraid he knew where this was going, and certainly didn't want to go there.

"She's a Slytherin!" Ron said, putting as much bitterness as he could into such a simple sentence.

"So what?" Harry was certainly not going to help Ron get to where he was going with his conversation. It was already going to be unpleasant enough without his help.

"So who knows what she's planning on doing to you! She could be planning on cursing you as soon as she gets you alone or..."

Harry didn't need him to finish his sentence. Standing up, he looked at Ron with a determined look. "Ron, you remember what I told you after the First Task? I said I forgave you for being a prat, but that it would take some time for you to get back in my good book? Well, you're still not there yet and you're walking on very thin ice here. So think long and hard before you finish that sentence."

"But Harry..."

"I said think Ron. Longer than a second," Harry cut him off. He glanced up at random and saw Daphne walking towards him. He held up a finger to stop her and saw her stop where she was and wait for him. "Now, my date is waiting for me and I'm going to go spend time with her. You're more than welcome to join us as long as you act civil. If not, then think about the situation, and that goes for Hermione and Viktor as well, and we can have this conversation again later."

Harry ignored Ron's stunned look at he made his way to Daphne. Even after dancing for so long, she was still radiating beauty. He smiled as he walked up to her, reaching out to hand her a butterbeer, which was no doubt cold as this point. Oh well, maybe she won't notice.

"This is cold Potter," she commented after taking a sip. Damn, she noticed.

"Err, sorry about that. Want another one?"

"No, don't worry about it. Let's just sit down, my feet are killing me."

They found a small table away from everyone in the back of the room and took it over. Apparently when Daphne said 'no, don't worry about another butterbeer,' was code for 'I'll just drink yours,' seeing as how she did just that. While Daphne drank his butterbeer, which was still partly warm oddly enough, they actually began having real conversations. She started telling Harry about her family and he found that she wasn't anywhere near as sarcastic when she talked about them. She explained her parents jobs at the Ministry, about how they were a house divided between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, and her sister Astoria. Apparently Harry was going to have quite an interesting conversation with Astoria once she found out her sister went to the Yule Ball with the Boy-Who-Lived. They must've sat there for over an hour, just talking about different things.

"Hey Harry!" Harry looked up, trying to find who shouted his name.

"Oh no," Harry muttered when he found Percy Weasley making his way towards them. "Hey Percy," he said as nicely as he could, although rather half-heartedly.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm Percy Weasley. I work for Mr. Crouch in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Actually," he added smugly. "I'm here representing him."

"I don't," Daphne started to say 'I don't care,' but changed tactics quickly when Harry discreetly grabbed her hand and squeezed. "believe we have met either, you're right. I'm Daphne Greengrass."

"Ah yes, I know you're parents. From the Ministry of course. Very nice people. So Harry," he turned back to him, apparently not very interested in Daphne in the least. "Made friends with Viktor Krum I see. I saw you sitting with him earlier."

"Uhh, yeah. I guess you could say that."

"Very good indeed. That what this whole tournament is about, International Magical Cooperation. How do you think the tournament is going so far? Apart from that little fiasco with you being entered and all, of course."

Harry tried his best to hide his eye roll and sigh so as not to be rude, but you could hardly blame him. Give Percy five minutes and you'll get the pants bored off you with the latest news in cauldron bottom thickness. Unbeknownst to Harry, Daphne picked up on this sign from Harry and did quick analyzing of the situation.

"Oh well, I don't know. It seems to be going alright," he didn't really know what else to say.

"I'm surprised at how the whole situation turned out with you. But I mean rules are rules. As Mr. Crouch always says..."

"Let's dance!" Daphne jumped up, grabbed Harry's hand and began to pull him to the dance floor. Harry turned to give Percy the best apologetic look he could fake and heard Percy say what sounded along the lines of 'good man,' and 'gotta keep the ladies happy.'

"Oh lord, thank you," Harry exclaimed when they were a good distance away. "I thought we were doomed for a minute there."

"Oh that was for my benefit. I could sense a long, very dry conversation on the horizon. You think I wanted to sit there for that?"

"Well then," Harry blinked. "I suppose thanks for taking me with you and not abandoning me."

"Don't say I never did anything for you," she replied, not missing a beat as she finally found a space on the dance floor and turned to face him.

The song was slow. If you asked Harry, the lights seemed dimmer but Daphne was positively radiating more light than the Great Hall. He wasn't sure which one of them did it, but they were suddenly dancing much closer than they had all night. Before he knew it, they were much too close, he couldn't remember ever seeing her crystal blue eyes as clearly as he could now. Time seemed to have stopped, but the next thing Harry knew, he was leaning down towards her and what was more, she was doing the same. Their lips were barely an inch apart when all of a sudden pain shot through his side and he was kissing, not Daphne, but the floor of the Great Hall. Fred and George, apparently, had been doing the most crazy and exotic dance in the world together, no doubt showing off for Angelina and Alicia, when things had gone quite wrong. The end result was George being hurtled straight into Harry like a rampaging rhino. Harry looked up to see George laying on top of him, looking dumbfounded for moment before he gave his trademark mischievous grin.

"Harry! Mate, how's life?"

Harry blinked. "Oh you know, still living."

"Good, that means you're winning."

"Gred?"

"Yeah Harry?"

"Do you mind getting off me?" Harry said as he was still flat on the floor pinned under George.

"Oh, sorry mate, accident. Usually I can pull off the Dancing Hippo of the Nile better than that." George grinned as Fred roared with laughter.

"It's ok, no pro...wait, the dancing _what?_" Harry wondered as George leapt to his feet and offered Harry a hand, pulling him up.

"The Dancing Hippo of the Nile," Fred stated matter-of-factly.

"We learned it from this loony old wizard when we were in Egypt," George added.

"Waste of 12 sickles our mum kept saying."

"We're being conned out of our money said dad."

"But we knew otherwise."

"This is a sacred dance of the Egyptian Wizarding Culture we told them."

"Knew it would come in handy eventually."

"Would you care to learn this foreign tradition dear Harrykins?"

"Free of charge for you of course."

"Maybe later guys," Harry could help but laugh at this. Good ol' Gred and Forge were something else.

"Well ickle Harrykins," George said with a grin.

"We must be on our way."

"Can't keep the ladies waiting," George motioned to Angelina and Alicia, who were standing nearby.

"But we leave you," Fred said, putting his arm around Daphne's shoulder. "In the no doubt loving embrace of the charming Miss Greengrass."

"The Dancing Hippo of the Nile?" Daphne asked once the twins walked back over to Angelina and Alicia. "They must've been pulling your leg."

"You know, I can never tell with those guys."

"I don't know about you but I think I'm done with dancing for the moment," Daphne said as she brushed some of her hair out of her face and straightened part of her dress.

"Same," Harry nodded in agreement.

"Walk with me outside?" She gazed into his eyes softly. It wasn't a question. Or at least, not a question that had more than one answer. Harry could tell by her look that 'no' was not the right answer in this situation, nor was it even acceptable as an answer. He responded by offering her his arm. He was nowhere near suave enough to pull this off smoothly, so naturally it came across slightly awkwardly. Daphne must've been in an extremely good mood as she completely ignored his slight awkwardness and made no sarcastic or witty response. Either that or she was Imperiused. 'For my sake,' Harry told himself as she took his arm. 'Let's just say the good mood.'

They slowly walked around the garden-like area that was created outside for the ball. Benches were placed strategically around all the decorative hedges for the students to use and while there was snow on the ground, it didn't seem to be cold. Dumbledore must've enchanted the small area to stay warm. They casually walked around for a few minutes before a bench was finally deemed acceptable by Daphne. It was tucked away by several of the hedges and had a rather large hedge right behind it, where, Harry was sure, more benches were. Harry opened his mouth to make some probably lame comment when he heard a familiar voice coming from a bench on the other side of the hedge. Why, out of all the freaking benches there, did  
Daphne had to pick this one?

"Moment I saw ya, I knew," came Hagrid's deep, rumbling voice.

Harry wanted to be anywhere rather than on that bench, able to hear Hagrid and Madame Maxime's conversation. He tried to distract himself with a beetle that was sitting on the bench by Daphne's shoulder. The beetle tried to scurry out of his reach, so he simply flicked it away, just to see how far it would go. He didn't want to look at Daphne, for fear of seeing her reaction. Very soon, however, Madame Maxime angrily took off and Hagrid gloomily trotted his way back to his cabin. Harry finally came to his senses when he felt a warm hand in one of his.

"Did you know?" came her voice through the night air. He was afraid of this, but he knew it was coming and tried to brace himself for it.

"No, but what does it matter? He's still Hagrid." Which was true. Harry didn't care at all if Hagrid was part giant, he was still the same man Harry regarded as family. He was the one who introduced Harry to everything he knew now.

"It's just that, well, there's a reason giants are secluded the way they are. They're terrible and dangerous."

"Oh yeah?" Harry found his voice getting a little colder with each word. "Are you saying Hagrid is terrible and dangerous?"

"I'm not saying that, but you know some of his lessons are rather dangerous," she replied, rather calmly.

"So he's a bad teacher?" He tried to quail the anger that was slowly bubbling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn't anger at Daphne per say, it was the whole situation really.

"I mean, come on Potter, Blast-Ended Skrewts? And then there was the Hippogriffs last year and that accident with Mal.."

"Don't you dare try to blame that on Hagrid," Harry retorted defensively. He retreated his hand from Daphne's, much more harshly than he intended. "It's not his fault Malfoy is a slimy and brainless git. He knew what would happen if he insulted Buckbeak, he just wanted to get Hagrid fired because he's a racist scumbag."

"Well what about the Skrewts huh? Not to mention the fact that I know he was imprisoned in Azkaban during second year for the Chamber of Secrets mess. You know he was expelled from Hogwarts right?"

He was on his feet in an instance. He had certainly not expected this when she had asked him to walk outside. He was so angry right now he didn't know what to do. She had no idea about Hagrid. She had no idea about anything. He knew he would probably hate himself for thinking this later, but was she really the same as Malfoy when it came to about Pureblood supremacy? She had given him the 'Not all Slytherin's are Death Eater's' speech, but one does not need to be a death eater to be a racist. Then again, she hadn't necessarily said Death Eaters, she had said evil. Not all Slytherin's are evil. Can one be racist and not be evil? She had never given him any reason to believe she thought that way before. For reasons unknown to himself, Harry decided to take all the logic he just thought of, and chuck it out the window.

"You have no idea what you're talking about Greengrass!" Now she was on her feet.

"Oh, it's Greengrass now, is it?" she replied acidly.

"Thought it was more appropriate, seeing as how you only seem to know my last name."

"Merlin Potter..."

"You see? There you go with the Potter again," he interrupted her, causing her to glare at him.

"You're such an ass."

"Yeah?" Harry had the sudden urge to kick the bench, but suppressed it at once.

"Yeah." She replied shortly, and brutally.

"Well, I'd rather be an ass than be someone who thinks they're superior to another just because of their heritage!" She spun so fast her hair slapped him across the face like a whip before she stormed off.

Harry waited a full minute before heading to Gryffindor Tower. He used his knowledge of the school to take some of his 'shortcuts.' The ones he used took a few minutes longer, but they ensured him privacy. Gryffindor Common Room was fairly empty with the exception of the odd student here and there who were third year and below. Colin Creevy tried to wave at Harry, but he pretended not to notice and made his way up the stairs to his dormitory. He was not surprised to find it deserted and was glad for it. He furiously ripped off his shoes and threw them. One landed under Dean's West Ham poster and the other bounced off Neville's bed and ricocheted out the open window. He silently dropped every swear word he knew as he summoned the shoe back. Not bothering to even change out of his dress robes, he dropped into his bed and started at the ceiling for what felt like hours, pretending to be asleep when Ron and the others trickled in later in the night.

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**A/N: I know a lot of people don't like that my chapters aren't like novels in themselves, so starting from here on out, I'm going to try to make them at least a bit longer, probably around this length. Only downside is that it might take me a little bit longer to update because of it. While I'm on that topic, I want to apologize for the slight delay in uploading this chapter. I actually finished it almost a week ago, but I've been without internet for almost two weeks. So naturally when I got it back today, this was my first stop.**

**Part of this chapter I wrote when I was thoroughly exhausted. I had worked from 5 am to around 1 am with short breaks in between and it was around 2 in the morning when I wrote part of this chapter. The parts I wrote during in that half asleep phase was the scene with Krum telling the duck story and the scene with Gred and Forge doing the Dancing Hippo of the Nile. I don't know where I came up with those ideas, but they seemed like a good idea at the time and once I was properly awake and editing some, I decided what the hell, I'll keep em. So you guys can see a bit of how my mind works when I'm tired. **

**In other news, I'm about halfway done with the next chapter and I'll try to update soon. Let me know what you guys think about the Yule Ball and how you guys like the length of this rather than before. Feel free to drop a review or PM me with any questions, comments, or criticism. I enjoy hearing what you guys have to say.**

**One last thing, my last update, chapter 9, The Walk hit 50,000 views, over 500 followers, and over 300 favorites. I never thought that this story would be read and liked by so many people. You guys really are awesome and I really appreciate all of you who keep coming back to read more! Thanks to all of you and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones to follow!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Currently out of stupid, witty remarks about not being owning Harry Potter. Sorry to disappoint.**

* * *

Potter is the world's biggest ass.

These were the words of the day, Daphne decided, as she watched him enter the Great Hall by himself, looking rather unhappy if you asked her. It was the first day back from break, which registered one thought to Daphne. Today was Care of Magical Creatures day. This, unfortunately, meant the prospect of not only having to see Potter all class, but keep working with him. This would be the first time she and Potter were going to be face to face since their disastrous night at the Yule Ball. Also, it made things slightly more awkward because it was Professor Hagrid's class, given what they had argued about at the ball.

Daphne finally took her eyes off Potter and went back to her toast when she found a newspaper laying on top of her plate. She didn't even know why she bothered having a subscription to the Daily Prophet, but oh well. Her parents paid for it and it pleased them to think their oldest daughter was taking an interest in the on-goings of Magical Britain. She pushed it to the side with the mindset of 'food now, read later.' Her toast eating, which was slowly becoming cold and hard, was interrupted again, but this time by the not -so-quiet whisperings of a group of Ravenclaw's. Daphne had become used to this over the past few days. Ever since the ball people had been whispering about her and Potter and how that happened. Most of the rumors included ideas such as blackmail, dark magic, and love potions. Secretly, her favorite Daphne/Potter conspiracy involved a magic carpet, a confundus charm, an army of puffskins, and Daphne being a siren. That one amused her a great deal. The whispers had annoyed her at first, but now Daphne just ignored them for the most part. It was just things how were at Hogwarts, she supposed. Everyone just wanted something to talk about. 'Here's to another day of hearing people talk about you and Potter,' Daphne thought as she took a sip of pumpkin juice, imagining herself raising her glass, toasting herself.

She brushed those thoughts from her mind, only to hear raucous laughter coming from further down the Slytherin table. Glancing down to see which of her housemates were being so obnoxious, she wasn't shocked to see that it was Draco Malfoy and his little gang of friends. They were all reading the Daily Prophet that was propped up against a container of orange juice in front of Draco. Clearly something was very amusing in the paper today. She made a mental note to check it out later, albeit reluctantly since anything Draco Malfoy and his gang found funny was sure to be wrong on some level. She couldn't help but think back to conversation a couple of days after the ball.

"Hey Daphne!"

She knew this was coming. She had avoided Malfoy and his gang quite successfully since the Ball two days ago, but being in the same house as them and having to share a common room, she knew it was only a matter of time.

"Yes Draco?" she replied politely, turning to find him a few feet behind her, flanked by Vincent and Gregory.

"Do you mind telling me what you doing with Potter at the ball?" he asked abruptly. Well, that was not subtle in the least. Then again, Draco was not exactly the definition of subtlety.

"Well, we ate food, just like everyone else did. Then we danced for awhile, you know, like the rest of the students at the ball." She knew exactly what he meant, but sometimes making Draco mad was just so enjoyable.

"You know what I mean. Why did you go with him?" he sneered. Typical Draco.

"Because he asked me," she replied simply. This was not one hundred percent true, but Draco didn't need to know that she had, tricked wasn't the word she would use in this situation, persuaded Potter. Yes, she had simply persuaded Potter to ask her to the ball. Not that he needed to know that either.

"Then why did you say yes? You two a thing now?" he was glaring quite harshly now.

"Oh hell no. He's an ass." Which was true. Potter was a planet-sized ass. Uranus seemed appropriate in this situation. Daphne mentally congratulated herself for her cleverness on that one. Draco didn't seemed convinced though.

"I'll give you that one, but that still doesn't explain why you said yes. Or why he thought he could even ask you."

"I have no bloody idea why he asked me Draco. Perhaps you better ask him that," Daphne said to her house mate. "As for why I said yes, it's none of your business. "I have my own reasons."

He went wide eyed for a fraction of a second before he changed his look. He began looking at Daphne in a whole new light.

"I know what you're doing!" he exclaimed suddenly, as if he just had the world's greatest epiphany. "You're just using him!"

"Excuse me?" She felt a lump rise up in her throat.

"Yeah, you're just leading him on, aren't you?" Daphne just stood there in silence. She

"Is it just for the fame of being with the Boy-Who-Lived and Hogwarts so-called champion? Or are you just going to play him and then crush him?"

"It's none of your business Draco."

"You're a lot more cunning for a Slytherin that I originally thought. Perhaps we can be friends after all."

"I've said from day one that I made a good Slytherin," Daphne smirked.

"Glad you know where you belong. Don't worry, I won't give you away whenever I see you and Potter together in public. Although, for appearances sake, I'll have to give you a hard time like I do Potter. I'm sure you understand Daphne."

"I would expect nothing less from you Draco," Which was true.

"Let me know how this progresses, won't you?"

"Naturally," she replied simply. "I'm sure I can get you loads of information on him."

"Perfect. Well, I'll be seeing you," he said as he turned casually and strutted away while his two gorillas lumbered after him.

Well, it was certainly an illuminating conversation. Probably the most illuminating conversation she had ever had with Draco. She had to hand it to him, Draco Malfoy was actually a little smarter than she gave him credit for. At least she had gotten him off of her back, for now at least. She couldn't say the same thing about Astoria however. Then again, when did little siblings ever let anything go and stop pestering you for things. Astoria was certainly living up to this stereotype accurately.

"Oi Daphne!" The following morning found Daphne Greengrass hiding in her favorite corner of the library, reading, or at least attempting to, a book on runes that were used by ancient Mongolian Warlocks.

"You shouldn't yell in the library. Madame Pince will have your head," Daphne stated, still pouring over her book. She had gotten quite good at reading while people tried to talk to her, she had Potter to thank for that. She heard her sister sit down at the table, but Daphne didn't bother looking up from her book. "Do you mind Tori? I'm studying you see."

"Oh no. Not till you explain to me what the bloody hell you were doing with Harry Potter last night!"

"You shouldn't say things like bloody hell. You're too young to curse. Not to mention you're bad at it."

"And you shouldn't change the subject Daph."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me go back to what our conversation earlier. Where did I leave off?" she replied sarcastically, still determinedly looking at her book, although she had given up on trying to read it for the time being. "Oh yeah. Studying. Go away."

"Not till I get answers." In all honesty, Astoria wasn't very good at this interrogation stuff. She was too uppity and cheery for it.

"You're not getting answers till I finish studying."

"And you're not going to finish studying until I get answers."

"It appears we have reached an impasse," said Daphne, who out of the corner of her eyes saw Astoria lunge for the book. She barely got it out of the way in time. "Nice try. So how did you even find me?"

"I'm just good like that," Astoria said proudly.

"I'll have to remember to thank Tracey for informing you. Hey Tracey, you can come out from behind the bookshelf now."

She grinned slightly and shook her head as she heard the uttered "Damn," coming out from the section on Gilderoy Lockhart. She honestly didn't know how or why he had his own section. Or why Dumbledore even let Madame Pince stock his books in the library. She sure didn't know. She wasn't a librarian.

"So you gonna tell us Daphne?" Tracey asked curiously as she joined them at the library table.

"Not you too," Daphne deadpanned.

"In my defense, you told me last night at the ball that you were gonna fill me in later," said Tracey as she pulled a hair band from her wrist and pulled her dark brown hair up in a ponytail.

"Now you have to tell me!" Tori sounded almost offended at the thought of being left out. Almost.

"Gee, thanks a million Tracey."

"Just answer the questions Greengrass so we can get on with our lives," Tracey grinned at her friend.

"Good Lord, fine!" Daphne groaned in slight frustration. She really didn't want to be having this conversation. At all. "What do you want to know?"

"When did you and Harry Potter become an item?" Leave it to her sister to jump right into that question.

"I am most certainly _not_ dating Potter," she put as much emphasis on the not as possible. Hopefully Astoria could get the hint.

"Then why were you all over him at the ball?" Clearly she did not get the hint.

"Firstly, I was not 'all over him,' as you put it. Second of all, where did you get this information from? Seeing as how you weren't even there."

"Tracey said you and Harry Potter were like, making out on the dance floor," Astoria explained casually, as though making out with the Boy-Who-Lived was a walk in the park.

"Tracey, what the hell?" Daphne exclaimed, her voice going a little higher than normal.

"Well, that's what it looked like from where me and Blaise were at," Tracey admitted earnestly.

"Ok, both of you. Let's get one thing straight. I did most definitely not make-out, kiss, or put my lips anywhere near Potter last night," Daphne growled, she was slowly growing irritated at the both of them. An ominous sign.

"Really? You seemed to be having a good time last night." Tracey seemed utterly baffled by the fact that she did not snog Harry Potter.

"I never said that."

"Not directly. But come on Daph, you're my best friend. You think I don't know when you're having a good time and don't want to admit it?"

"Ok fine!" She was starting to get seriously annoyed with them as this point. 'Might as well bite the bullet Daphne.' "Yes, I was having a good time with Potter at first. Then he starting acting like a humongous douche so I'm not speaking to him at the moment. Don't ask what happened, I'm not going to talk about it. Now you know, so I'm going to study some more."

"What was he doing?" Tracey asked after a couple of seconds of awkward silence. She knew they were going to ask. You know, even after she literally just said not to ask.

"Yeah what happened?" Astoria chipped in.

"Didn't I just say don't ask?"

"And?" Astoria asked, stretching the word out as if it would further her point.

"And I don't want to talk about it. Simple as that," and with that, Daphne was back hiding behind her Mongolian rune book.

Luckily for her, Tori and Tracey had dropped it for the time being. Although, occupying the little sister and best friend role in her life, they of course asked her sporadically throughout the rest of the holiday. That was how Daphne found herself in her current position in the Great Hall. She finished eating breakfast and glanced around for Tracey, who was nowhere to be found. She probably overslept. Again. As Tracey always did, her internal alarm clock would be waking her up right about now, so she had just enough time to throw on a uniform and leg it to class.

During her quick search for Tracey, Daphne subconsciously let her eyes wonder over to the Gryffindor table. Potter was sitting about halfway up the table by himself. He didn't look angry or overly upset. Just, not happy. She didn't see Weasley or Granger sitting with him. She didn't actually see either one of them at the table come to think of it. Who knows what that's about. Daphne's mind briefly flitted over a scenario where she walked over and tried to talk to Potter. She took that idea and flushed it down the toilet as soon as she thought of it. She wasn't going to talk to him. He was an ass. He'd have to approach her if they were to talk again. She was also determined to stop thinking about this.

But why did he have to go and act like such a prat when they were, at least she was, actually having a good time? All Daphne said was that giants are dangerous, which is true. Anyone who grew up in the magical world all knew that giants were dangerous and enjoyed killing, that was why they were pretty much confined to the mountains. She never meant to say that Hagrid was included in that, just that giants are dangerous and perhaps that was where Hagrid got his love of dangerous creatures. Even Potter had to admit, blast-ended skrewts could not be classified as anything other than a monster. Daphne actually liked the classes on Hippogriffs, but they were capable of causing serious harm or death. She hadn't meant to say that that was Hagrid's fault either, because Draco was just an idiot that way.

In all honesty, Daphne was simply stating facts and never said anything specific about including Hagrid in them. Potter had perceived the whole thing as giant racism or something. He infuriated her by presuming that she thought she was better than others because she was a Pureblood. This was like the 'All Slytherin's become dark wizards' speech all over again, except this time it dealt with blood purity. Daphne was by no means a blood purist nor did she think she was better than others because of her blood status.

And all Potter had said at first was, 'You don't know what you're talking about!' That was when she had brought up the Chamber of Secrets and his expulsion. She didn't know what she was talking about? Please, he was making it sound as if, her thought broke off there. It took her a minute to finish her thought. As if he knew more. That night on the Astronomy Tower came rushing back to her all at once. Harry was raised by magic hating muggles. He wasn't raised in the magical world so he didn't understand what she had meant by what she said about giants. And Hagrid was the one Dumbledore sent to introduce Harry into the magical world. If he didn't like his muggle family that much, she could see where Hagrid would be someone he was close with. Which means there was a chance he actually did know what he was talking about. It all, or well most of it, made sense to her now.

She was brought back to reality, quite rudely too, by more laughter from Draco and his cronies. Upon further investigation, she discovered that they were still laughing at lord knows what in the Daily Prophet. That was when she remembered her own copy sitting beside her. She let her curiosity get the better of her and picked up the newspaper. The front page had a picture of Professor Hagrid and were accompanied by the words "**Dumbledore's Giant Mistake! By Rita Skeeter"**

'Oh no...' Daphne's thoughts trailed off after that as she began speed reading the article. She let the paper drop from her hands when she had reached the end. While she knew this wasn't the best case scenario, Daphne didn't realize just what the repercussions were until she reached Care of Magical Creatures barely ten minutes later.

Instead of finding Hagrid waiting for them, Daphne discovered Professor Grumbledwarf, or something like that, was there waiting for them. Daphne, being fairly clever if you asked her, put two in two together almost at once, but didn't want to admit it. On the brightside, if there was one, there were no skrewts there. At least there was a small silver lining amongst all this. She peeked a glance at Potter, who looked more than thoroughly confused and was attempting to ask Professor Grumbledwarf something. No doubt where Hagrid was. There was another silver lining. She probably wouldn't have to be partners with Potter, which made her life a little easier at the moment.

Although she would have never admitted it, Daphne couldn't help but feel kind of bad for Hagrid. He certainly didn't ask for any of this. While it was true giants were definitely violent creatures, she just couldn't picture Hagrid as a terrible person, even if he was half-giant and had a love for monstrous creatures. She also hated to admit that Potter was right , Hagrid definitely got the short end of the stick. It made her feel slightly wrong when she found that she actually liked the unicorns Professor Grubbleybeard showed them. But they were just so beautiful!

"Perhaps he's too ashamed to show his big ugly face," she heard a familiar sneer and laugh. She glanced behind her to where the boys where waiting to find Draco hand Potter a copy of the Daily Prophet. This was not going to end well.

She found it hard to pay attention throughout the rest of class, barely taking in a word Professor Grubbleyboard, yes that was it, had said about unicorns. She would discreetly gaze over to where Potter was, and boy did he look pissed. When class finally ended, she felt bad that she had enjoyed the unicorns. She almost felt like a traitor for doing so. Again, not that she would have ever admitted that to anyone.

"Look at this!" she suddenly heard Potter's voice. She turned to see him about to bite Granger's head off for whatever she had said. She was no doubt speed reading the paper he showed her, looking more shocked with each line. Daphne didn't realize she had stopped and was staring at them until they began walking again. Potter let Weasley, Granger and Longbottom get a little bit ahead of him before he approached her.

"You seen this?" His voice, and face, was neutral. His green eyes just stared into her blue ones intently, not even blinking. He tossed the Daily Prophet at her feet.

"Uhh, yeah," she managed to say when she found her voice, "I saw it this morning..." she trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"You happy now?" Harry asked calmly, although she could see the frustration hidden beneath his mask. Daphne looked at her feet, the headline **Dumbledore's Giant Mistake** catching her eye. She looked back into Potter's eyes, only to find that he had already begun walking away.

* * *

The next two weeks seemed to drag on and on. Daphne thought they would never end. Tracey was planning on dragging her into Hogsmeade with her. Daphne was definitely not feeling Hogsmeade this weekend, but honestly didn't have anything else better to do, seeing as she was caught up on her homework. That was how she found herself arm in arm with Tracey as they made their way into Honeydukes. For a Hogsmeade trip, it was fairly monotonous. At least, until they decided on warming up at the Three Broomsticks by way of butterbeer. Tracey pointed to an open table and began heading to it, until Daphne noticed it was right next to a booth currently Potter, Weasley, Longbottom, and Granger. Daphne stopped so fast she nearly jerked Tracey to the ground, and began pulling her in the opposite direction, finding an open table tucked away in the corner.

"Drinks are on you this time," Daphne said as she took a seat at the table.

"Fine. But you have to go get them," Tracey replied, pulling out a handful of silver sickles and handing them to her friend.

"...Fair enough." Daphne agreed after a minute. She made her way easily enough to the bar, sure she had to push through a group of third year Hufflepuffs but who was counting? Upon reaching the bar, she practically walked into Potter and his friends. Each of them was clutching a butterbeer in their hands and were headed back to their table no doubt. Daphne tried to move around them, but being the Three Broomsticks, it was of course too crowded. Potter didn't make things easier for her by just standing there.

"Do you mind getting out of the way Potter?" she asked calmly, but with an icy undertone.

"No I don't mind at all."

"You are such an ass," she scowled at him.

"So I've heard," he replied sarcastically. Daphne decided that just bantering back and forth with Potter was proving pointless, so she did the first thing she could think of. It was never said that Daphne Greengrass was the most ladylike female in the world. She hocked the biggest loogie she could, and spit it right into his butterbeer. He slowly looked down at his butterbeer, stared at it for a couple seconds, before gaping at her. Daphne had to refrain from laughing at the stupid look on his face.

"...Really?" He said slowly, disbelieving.

"That's what you get for being an ass," she said simply before pushing straight past Potter. Longbottom and Weasley, who were still standing next to him began roaring with laughter.

"What took so long?" Tracey asked as Daphne slid into her seat, depositing two butterbeers onto the table in the process.

"I had to grace Potter with a present before I got the drinks."

"I thought you were still cross with him?"

"Oh I am," Daphne said as Tracey lifted her butterbeer to her lips, but set it down almost at once.

"Oh god...what did you do?"

"Well since he decided to still be an ass, I spit in his butterbeer," Daphne explained nonchalantly. Tracey, who made the mistake of choosing that time to take a drink, promptly snorted, nearly spraying butterbeer everywhere.

"How lady like of you," Tracey laughed.

"As if you have room to talk. You just nearly coated me in butterbeer from your nose."

Tracey opened her mouth to respond when she began staring at the commotion going on by the door, that was when the shouting began. Daphne, whose back was to the door, spun around in her seat, surprised by what she found.

"You horrible woman!" Daphne was most definitely surprised to find Granger going toe to toe with Rita Skeeter. They watched the scene for a minute before Potter and his friends left the pub, no doubt getting Granger away from Rita Skeeter.

"What do you think that was about?" Tracey asked conversationally.

"No idea," she lied. Daphne, unfortunately, knew exactly what they were arguing about. She didn't want to admit it, but she was disappointed in herself for not jumping up to help Granger.

* * *

Things progressed quite monotonously for the rest of January and into February. Professor Hagrid was back to teaching Care of Magical Creatures, which was a plus. Daphne didn't know why, she just liked him better than Professor Grubbleywad. He was also continuing her work on unicorns instead of the skrewts, which was several plusses. One, no skrewts. Two, she could actually enjoy the unicorns without that small feeling of guilt washing over her. Three, no more blast-freaking ended skrewts. Four, she didn't have to be partners with Potter, who still was being an ass. Five, did I mention the skrewts?

Everything else stayed the same for the most part. Tracey and Astoria still occasionally pestered her about Potter. So did Draco, but that was for a different reason. She had not bothered to talk to Potter since she had given him his spitball butterbeer, and he clearly was making no effort to talk to her. Point in case, he was an ass. She took to just ignoring him in Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. About the only thing that had changed was everyone's excitement level for the Second Task, which was to take place the next day.

Daphne was finishing up her dinner by herself tonight. Astoria was sitting with her friends at the Ravenclaw table and Tracey and Blaise had already headed back to the common room. Daphne partook in her daily ritual of sneaking a peak at the Gryffindor table, something she would never had admitted to. She swore up and down to herself that is must have been subconscious. Potter wasn't at the table, neither were Weasley, Granger or Longbottom. This wasn't overly shocking really. Daphne had been seeing less of the group when she sneaked a peek at their house table as the second task grew closer. They were, no doubt, still holed up in a library corner, trying to all help Potter not die.

Daphne seemed to be doing a lot of lying to herself lately. She lied to herself about glancing at the Gryffindor table during meal times. She lied to herself about being slightly worried for Potter with the second task coming up. And she most definitely lied to herself about the fact that she missed the ass. Of course, she also lied to herself about admitting that she was lying to herself about all of this. At that point, her head had started hurting and finally gave up on the thought process.

"Miss Greengrass," she was suddenly pulled back to reality by Professor McGonagall, who was standing behind her. "If you've finished eating, I would like you to come with me."

"Did I do something professor?" she asked curiously. "My last assignment didn't earn a T, did it?"

"No Miss Greengrass, you did not earn a T. You're last assignment was actually as outstanding as usual. But that is not what I am here about. Come with me and we will talk more in private."

Daphne stood and followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall. A couple of students were staring at her as though she was walking to her execution. They walked in silence through the near deserted hallways, only the sound of their echoing footsteps filled the air. It seemed to Daphne to be much louder than normal. Perhaps because she still didn't know if she was actually in trouble or not. Although she couldn't fathom what she would have done to warrant this. They walked straight past the primary staircase to the dungeons, so the professor wasn't taking her to see Professor Snape. What really confused Daphne however, was when they continued on after passing Professor McGonagall's office without even stopping. Professor McGonagall didn't even notice, or at least didn't show it. The only logical conclusion that came to mind was that they were going to see the Headmaster. They definitely weren't going to the staff room, which was on the clear opposite side of the castle. The only wrench in this plan was that Daphne could honestly say that she had no clue what she would have done to cause Professor McGonagall to whisk her away in the middle of dinner.

"Cockroach Cluster," Professor McGonagall said to a gargoyle, which promptly moved aside to show a spiraling staircase. Daphne was led up the stairs and into a grand office.

"Ah, welcome back Minerva. Good evening Miss Greengrass, could I interest you in a sherbet lemon?" she heard from a kind and calm voice. One she recognized without needing to see the long hair, beard, and half-moon spectacles of Albus Dumbledore.

"I...what?" was the best she had.

"A sherbet lemon. It's a muggle sweet I'm rather fond of," he explained, a small smile on his face. The familiar twinkle in his eye present as always.

"Oh, no thanks Professor."

Daphne took a moment to take in the office, trying to let everything sink in. There were dozens of portraits along the walls that, curiously enough, all held sleeping witches and wizards. Strange instruments were piled onto table periodically throughout the room, though none of which she recognized. What really caught her eye was the bird perched on a stand.

"Is that a Phoenix Professor?" she asked before she could help herself.

"Yes Miss Greengrass. Quite the eye you have. Let me introduce you to Fawkes," Dumbledore smiled happily. She moved towards in subconsciously, but stopped when she realized what she was doing. Professor Dumbledore, however, nodded happily to allow her to continue forward. She stopped in front of the Phoenix and stared, mesmerized for a few moments. He was so beautiful. She cautiously held her hand forward, to which Fawkes rubbed his head against her open palm.

"He so rarely gets visitors, I'm sure you have simply made his day Miss Greengrass," Professor Dumbledore told her. "I believe he would be most excited if you were to visit him again in the future."

"Oh, thanks Professor," she didn't know what to say.

"Are we ready to finally start now Albus?" came a low growl from the other side of the office. Daphne jumped slightly. She was to entranced by the grand office and Fawkes, that she didn't even notice anyone else in the room. She looked over to see Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, something Bagman, and one of the Weasley's standing over four chairs, two of which were filled. Granger and Cho Chang were sitting in the chairs, both looking just as confused as she felt.

"Just a moment Alastor, we are still waiting for Madame Maxime to appear with Miss Delacour."

"No need to wait any longer Albus. They're just outside," Professor Moody replied with that creepy eye staring at, or through more likely, the office door. "Karkaroff is with them."

"Excellent!" Professor Dumbledore said excitedly.

The door opened at that point and in walked Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, and a little girl who looked like she could be Fleur Delacour's sister. Madame Maxime led the girl over to the empty chair next to Granger and stood behind it. That was when she realized everyone was staring at her and that she was still standing by Fawkes.

"Oh right. Sorry," she muttered awkwardly as she hurriedly made her way to the last empty chair next to Chang.

"Right, now that we are all present, I feel it is time to start. I am sure you four are no doubt wondering why I have called you here," Professor Dumbledore began explaining calmly. "As you know, tomorrow is the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The champions were each given the same clue in their golden egg. They each have to retrieve something from the bottom of the Great Lake."

Daphne Greengrass prides herself on being fairly intelligent and on her ability to figure things out. She had a feeling she knew where this was heading and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

"Now before I explain any further, I must stress that none of you four will be in any danger whatsoever," Professor Dumbledore said calmly, though urgently. Daphne hated herself for being so clever in this situation. She knew exactly what the champions were going to have to retrieve from the bottom of the lake.

"Each champion has to retrieve a 'hostage' for lack of better terms from the lack. Miss Delacour," the nervous little girl with silvery hair looked cautiously at the Hogwarts Headmaster. "Your sister Fleur will be rescuing you. Miss Chang, your champion is Cedric. As for Miss Granger, I believe Mr. Viktor Krum will be your champion. As for Mr. Potter, Miss Greengrass will be his hostage."

"You mean I have to rely on that flubberworm to rescue me?" Daphne thought. It took her a moment to realize she had said the words out loud. Granger gave her a slightly disapproving look while Dumbledore looked like he was hiding his amusement.

"As I said before, you will not be in any real danger Miss Greengrass. If a champion fails to retrieve his or her hostage, then that hostage will be safely returned regardless. You will all be put under an enchantment that will not only put you to sleep, but will allow you to stay alive underwater. The enchantment will break when you reach the surface and are back above water, which is when you will awaken from your sleep. Now do you four have any questions?"

"Is this optional?" Daphne heard herself asked. Potter was being such an ass lately. She didn't want him rescuing her. She felt there was a chance he would find her in the lake and just leave her there.

"Well Miss Greengrass, I will not force you to do this, but there are certain characteristics of the role that must be fulfilled, and you meet the requirements best I must say."

"I don't suppose you will tell me what said characteristics are, hmm?" she asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid I cannot. Perhaps Mr. Potter will tell you if you give consent to participate," he gave her a small smile and what really stood out was the twinkle in his eyes. She wasn't sure what made her do it, but she looked over at Fawkes, who was still perched absentmindedly on his stand. The Phoenix gazed over at her and cawed happily, shaking his head in the process. Emerald green eyes came to her mind as he did so.

"Alright, I'll do it."

* * *

**A/N: Here ya go guys. I hope this chapter helps everyone understand the argument between Daphne and Harry from last chapter. I got some flak for it, which I don't entirely understand. I realize that it probably wasn't the best thing to argue about, but they are only 14, when I was 14 I argued about stupid stuff all the time. I'm writing this, or trying to at least, from a realistic standpoint. No offense to anyone, but they only 14 and are not the most mature people in the world at that age. I also don't really understand how people thought Harry was being stupid and hotheaded. Throughout the books, Harry is a hothead. But it doesn't matter how stupid an argument is, but it is how people perceive it. From Harry's standpoint on the argument, he perceived Daphne as being a racist, which is certainly not a stupid thing to argument about. But enough about that, you will hear from Harry's side of the story next chapter.**

**I want to again take a moment to thank all of you for following this and everything. It really means a lot to me. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and that you continue to enjoy this fic. Feel free to ask, comment, or say anything to me. I like hearing everyones opinion, even if they differ from my own. **

**Until next time you fine people.**


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